Riccardo Piatti shares a big praise for Maria Sharapova: "She was special"



by LORENZO CIOTTI

Riccardo Piatti shares a big praise for Maria Sharapova: "She was special"
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The former Russian tennis player Maria Sharapova has had a very deep impact on tennis, since her victory at Wimbledon 2004. One of her last coaches was Riccardo Piatti. The Italian has been able to train many champions, during his career, such as Novak Djokovic, Ivan Ljubicic, Milos Raonic and Jannik Sinner.

There are those who came to him already with a certain level of maturity and there are those who instead relied on his experience to take the first steps towards our beloved sport. For Tv Monaco, Piatti revealed for the first time which of his players he was particularly impressed by and guess what? It's really about Maria Sharapova.

Riccardo Piatti was impressed by Maria Sharapova

"Unfortunately, the player who impressed me the most is the one I coached the least. I trained her for about ten months. It is a woman, Maria Sharapova. I mainly trained men, Novak Djokovic, Ivan Ljubicic and so on. But with Sharapova it was really very special because she was about to end her career and she wanted to know another side of tennis.

I had the opportunity to work with her and honestly we spent ten, eleven months together, during which I was able to appreciate her way of thinking. She has priorities and she knows them very well. She is very dedicated to her work.

There was a lot of affinity with her and with her entire team," said the Italian coach. Piatti then admitted, with a hint of regret, that he was unable to lead her to success: "Unfortunately we didn't get results, which is a little strange because she's the only player I didn't get good results with, but she's the one I felt most comfortable with," he told.

Shortly after the separation from Piatti, the Russian tennis player, capable of winning 5 Slams in her career, decided to retire from tennis to dedicate herself to her family and her private life. At the same time, the tennis icon has started a fruitful career as an entrepreneur, which is guaranteeing her an even brighter future.

Riccardo Piatti Maria Sharapova