When did you meet?
Nathalie Tauziat: It was Harmony who came to see me in Biarritz because she was taking part in the Biarritz tournament at the time, seven years ago, she was the one who reminded me of the date, a 25,000 dollars. Her mom asked me if I could take her for a bit. I told her that I was free and that she could come. The next day she was there!
Harmony Tan: I remember that with my mother, we took the direct car and drove seven and a half hours to Biarritz.
You had already made a good reputation as a coach by taking charge of the progression of Canadian players…
NT: I started about ten years ago and she arrived two or three years later. I had players like Canadian Eugénie Bouchard (Editor’s note: first Canadian to reach the final of a Grand Slam tournament and fifth place in the WTA rankings), Wozniak, and a lot of Canadian players after and when I had to free time for quite some time I have been working with Harmony but unfortunately I can’t accompany him to all the tournaments, it’s complicated but we work in pairs with Sam Sumyk and Laurent Lafitte who has been his physical trainer for three years and that’s a full staff that could normally take her even further than she is today.
Indeed, this year between Roland-Garros and Wimbledon you did not go unnoticed by the media…
HT: I would say especially Wimbledon because it was really my first real season on grass. I didn’t expect to play well on grass like that, I felt super comfortable and I didn’t expect to do a second week like that. In February, I told Sam Sumy that my goal was to go to the second week of a Grand Slam, but I didn’t think I would do it at Wimbledon.
Didn’t finding yourself facing the great Serena Williams scare you?
HT: I was really scared when I saw the print. I said to myself, she won 23 Grand Slams, and more on grass, including 7 times at Wimbledon. It’s funny because two days before the draw, I went to Wimbledon and I saw the names of all the winners of the tournament and I only saw the Williams sisters. With my mother we visited the central and the manager of Wimbledon said to me: “do you want to take a picture on it? “. I told him no I would just like to play on it and I would have had my picture.
And you did it after the game with her?
HT: Oh no not at all, she didn’t insist and didn’t seem to have digested this defeat too much…
NT: I didn’t follow Harmony but I had the opportunity to go to Wimbledon because I was in London with Tennis Canada too and I waltzed a bit with the juniors I coach there and the matches d’Harmony, including this one in the first round against Serena and which was a hell of a game. Harmony has learned a lot just in emotionality. On a match like that, she wins more! It’s easy and not easy at the same time. It was an eventful match for her and we had to calm her down to tell her that there was a trick to play behind. Beating Serena will be a lifelong experience for her. She reacted all the more well as she then beat a Spaniard who is 30 in the world; then she played an Englishwoman but it’s not easy to beat an Englishwoman at Wimbledon but she responded well because the match lasted fifty minutes. Good, behind her loses on Anisimova, but there is nothing to say.
What are you going to do after this stay on the Basque Coast?
HT: Now we’re preparing for the US tour before the US Open. I will be with coach Sam Sumyk (Editor’s note: Nathalie’s partner) who will then be there with the Canadian players she trains and presents at the US Open.
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