Maria Sharapova has hired Vladimir Voltchkov as her full-time hitting partner. Voltchkov worked with Sharapova during the grass court season and is with her at Stanford, along with her coach, Thomas Hogstedt. Sharapova also worked with hitting partner and part-time ATP player Cecil Mamitt of Los Angeles this year.
"It was more of a feeling," Sharapova told TENNIS.com said of her decision to go with the Belarusian, who reached the 2000 Wimbledon semifinal before falling to Pete Sampras. "Cecil worked with me tremendously on clay — there isn’t a ball he couldn’t run down, I was like, ‘When am I going to hit a winner?’ But at Fed Cup earlier in the year I hit with Voltchkov a few times and I asked him if there was a time during the year we could work together and it worked during the grass season. I like his ball and the way he hits shots and he can actually make me better."
Sharapova, who attempted a co-coaching relationship between her former coach Michael Joyce and her new coach Hogstedt at the end of last year and at the start of the this year that did not work out, cautioned that Voltchkov would not be in a similar leadership position as Hogstedt.
"It’s pretty tough to have two cooks in the kitchen. He’s great cause he willing to travel full time – it’s a sick Russian mentality, you just want to stay home I’m not sure why, we are crazy," she said with a laugh. "There are also some weeks when Thomas can’t come because he has to be with his family and then I can have [Voltchkov] for a few weeks. I’m excited about it."