The Adidas player development program will shut down at the end of the year. The company will no longer employ coaches Darren Cahill and Mats Merkel as well as physical trainer Gil Reyes to work with its players on tour and at the Las Vegas training facility.
Coach and broadcaster Cahill told TENNIS.com he is working with Adidas until December 31, but says he does not know what his coaching arrangement will be like next season. Cahill has been working extensively with Adidas player Simona Halep, and will be with her at the WTA Finals in Singapore. Halep stopped working with her previous coach, Wim Fissette, in the middle of the season.
"I have Darren now and I don't want to change him. I want to continue to work with him. It's just what I want," Halep said during Wuhan. "It's not easy that he's not here, but it's okay. I can manage this. I had many months without a coach. So I'm used to this."
Sven Groeneveld left the program in the fall of 2013 to coach Maria Sharapova, and Reyes has already stopped working with Adidas. Cahill, Reyes and Groeneveld began working with Adidas in 2008, with Groeneveld leading Ana Ivanovic to her sole Grand Slam title at Roland Garros.
Adidas heavily promotes players and coaches in its program, but disallowed coaches to work with players or sit in court-side boxes if they were playing another Adidas player. In the 2008 Roland Garros final, Groeneveld was unable to sit in the box when Ivanovic played fellow Adidas player Dinara Safina.
In Toronto this year, Halep was playing Angelique Kerber, who is also with Adidas. Before the match, Cahill tweeted, "Feeling a bit sick about this. Think the world of them & via my Adidas role I've been lucky to spend time with both."
A number of players have previously trained at the Las Vegas facility, including Andrea Petkovic, Sorana Cirstea, Daniela Hantuchova, Marcos Baghdatis and Fernando Verdasco.