“I feel the need for a new stimulus for the second half of my career,” Lorenzo Sonego said as he ended his long-time partnership with childhood coach, Gipo Arbino. The two had worked together for more than 20 years but the Italian star believed that change was needed to take his game to the next level. Indeed, the change seems to be working for him as Sonego achieved the best Grand Slam result of his career. As Sonego battles it out in the quarterfinals, he is widely backed by his new coach, Fabio Colangelo.

In the middle of the season last year, Sonego split with Arbino. Subsequently, he announced that Colangelo would be joining his team as the head coach. Colangelo, who is Sonego’s compatriot, was a tennis player and reached a career-high ranking of 154 in doubles. Additionally, he also has won 4 Challenger titles. Colangelo is a former technical director of the Circolo della Stampa Sporting, having worked extensively at developing young talent.

One of Colangelo’s first goals with Sonego was to achieve a good result at Grand Slam level, which the Italian star has already achieved with his exploits at the Australian Open. “We have not set ourselves a goal in terms of numbers – clarified the coach – when he manages to do well and with continuity the things we are trying, the standings will improve. What he lacks above all is to get a good result in a Grand Slam tournament.”

Ahead of the 2025 season, the two prepared for it at the Rafa Nadal Academy. The two even stayed at Nadal’s house for about two weeks before traveling to Hong Kong. While the preparations have been smooth, there is one possible area of concern for Sonego with his new coach.

Fabio Colangelo won’t travel with Lorenzo Sonego often

While coaches often travel with players at the tournaments, Sonego’s coach won’t join him for all the tournaments as he often stays in Milan to commentate for Sky. However, Colangelo makes sure he keeps up to date with Sonego’s performances to overcome this issue. During an interview, Sonego opened up about his new partnership while addressing this problem.

Sonego said, “He actually follows me a lot, almost every week. Only a few times has he not been there because of work with Sky, since he has that passion. But that’s exactly what I asked him for; he’s been with me a lot this year, and he’ll be able to follow me closely next year too. We have long-term projects. We started this journey together, and I have a lot of faith in him, in his work; I like him as a person, and we get along really well. I like what he says to me on the court, how he handles things off the court, the organization—he does it all very well. I think he’s a capable coach, and I’m trying to make the most of what he has to offer.”

The Italian star will play one of the most important matches of his career tomorrow against Ben Shelton in the Australian Open quarterfinals. Can Sonego reach the business end of the tournament? Let us know your views in the comments below.