Petra Kvitova, Karolina Pliskova exchange coaches; Johanna Konta splits with Esteban Carril

Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova has hired Karolina Pliskova’s former coach, and Pliskova hired Kvitova’s former coach. The 11th-ranked Kvitova will now work with Jiri Vanek, who parted ways with Pliskova last month. The sixth-ranked Pliskova, meanwhile, has hired David Kotyza, whose seven-year partnership with Kvitova ended in January. [caption id=“attachment_3134992” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File photo of Petra Kvitova with her ex-coach David Kotyza, who is now with Karolina Pliskova. Getty[/caption] With Vanek, who joined her in 2014, Pliskova jumped into the top 10 and reached the U.S. Open final. During her seven years with Kotyza, Kvitova won 17 WTA titles, including Wimbledon in 2011 and 2014. But she was struggling after their split, and former doubles specialist Frantisek Cermak, who was coaching her from April until September, didn’t change that much. Meanwhile, Johanna Konta has split with the Spanish coach who helped her become the first British woman in 32 years to be ranked in the world’s top 10 tennis players, British media reported on Thursday. “I am no longer working with Johanna but I want to give Johanna the opportunity to speak about it rather than me,” coach Esteban Carril told the Daily Mail. There was no immediate comment from the 25-year-old Australian-born player. The BBC said the British number one, who was ranked 147 in June last year but reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open in January and won her first WTA Tour title at Stanford in July, was now training at the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton. She secured a place in the top 10 in October – the first British woman to rise so high in the rankings since Jo Durie in 1984 – when she reached the China Open final and was voted the WTA’s most improved player of 2016.