"Word on the street is that Wim Fissette likes the cashola" - Serena Williams' former coach on Belgian dumping Qinwen Zheng for Naomi Osaka

Former doubles World No. 1 Rennae Stubbs has expressed her displeasure at renowned tennis coach Wim Fissette dumping Qinwen Zheng for Naomi Osaka.

Zheng and Fissette began working together before the start of the grasscourt season this year after splitting with longtime coach Pere Riba, who later coached Coco Gauff briefly. Fissette was expected to join Zheng at the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.

However, Wim stated that he decided to part ways with Zheng just before leaving for the quadrennial event.

Stubbs, who coached Serena Williams in the final weeks of her career, has questioned why the Belgian signed a contract with Zheng when he had plans to work with Osaka once she made her comeback.

"I think what he did was not good. Here's my thing and I would like to talk to him so I don't want to completely throw him under the bus and I haven't spoken to him. But when you sign a contract, which he clearly did with Qinwen. And she was like "Okay we're going to be playing the whole year, you're under contract" and then you pull the swifty and go back to Noami," she said on the latest episode of the Rennae Stubbs podcast.

"You knew Naomi was coming back, we all knew Naomi was coming back. Naomi said she wanted to start playing at the Australian Open, this was months and months and months ago. So why would you sign that contract knowing that Naomi's probably going to come back? Like, I would have said to Q, "Listen, if Naomi comes back and decides to play in January, I'm going back to her but I'll give you six months"," she added.

Stubbs further stated that money played a big role in Fissette moving on from Zheng to Osaka.

"But you have to be upfront when you're a coach in that circumstance and so to sign a contract and then go back to Naomi because I feel like she's going to win more than you are and pay me more, because clearly it came down to money because word on the street is that Wim likes the cashola. It's like, okay, listen if that's what you want your reputation to be then good for you. But not cool," she expressed.

Stubbs, who has also coached the likes of Karolina Pliskova, Samantha Stosur, and Genie Bouchard, offered Zheng her services, should she need them.

"She's good either way and if she wants another coach I am currently free, well maybe let's make that happen because obviously she's got a lot of fans, myself included," she expressed.

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"I cried after hearing that" - Qinwen Zheng on Wim Fissette's decision to work with Naomi Osaka

Wim Fissette and Naomi Osaka at the 2022 Australian Open.

Zheng Qinwen disclosed that she first learned about Wim Fissette being in contact with Naomi Osaka during the US Open this year. She said that the Belgian was curt to her after her quarterfinal defeat to Aryna Sabalenka.

"Because during the US Open I knew he had contact with the team of Osaka. Right after the match, he said to me that he felt like he had no connection with me. He never said that to me before. Right after I was defeated, he said that to me. I felt very strange," she said (via tennisworldusa).

While the Chinese player wondered if he would dump her for Osaka, her manager assured her that Fissette would not make such a move.

"I talked to my manager. I asked my manager whether he will go to Osaka's team. The manager said, no, he wouldn't be that kind of person," she added.

However, Zheng's fears came true a week later as Fissette informed her of his decision to work with Osaka.

"But after resting for a week, he suddenly told me that he was going to work with Osaka. It was quite a big impact to me and my team members and my family. I cried after hearing that," she expressed.

"There were no fights, no arguments in our collaboration. There was nothing new to me in this collaboration, but also he did not do anything wrong. I thought that was an unethical end to that collaboration," she added.

Incidentally, Osaka and Fissette have worked together previously. Their collaboration began shortly before the 2020 season. Under his guidance, Osaka won two Grand Slam titles (2020 US Open and 2021 Australian Open).

The two eventually parted ways in 2022, with Osaka stating that there was no bad blood between them and that it was purely due to her needing "a different energy."