Darren Cahill is justifiably known as one of the best coaches in tennis. On a family sabbatical for the time being, the ESPN analyst left big shoes to fill in the Simona Halep camp, and we've already seen that a well-regarded name like Thierry van Cleemput was not the right person to step into them.
However, there is one notable area that a new face can improve on Cahill's tenure: scheduling.
Halep demonstrated that a wise voice in this area is still needed after her time in the Middle East, where playing Fed Cup seemed to catch up with Simo at the very end in Doha, as her foot was an issue in her lose-from-ahead title match against Elise Mertens.
At the time, I summed up Halep's Middle East swing as tough luck, playing well but walking away with no titles and a point total that would not ultimately impact the landscape.
I did this in assumption that she would skip Dubai, knowing that the meat of her season (Indian Wells-Roland Garros, in which she's a top contender at every event) is on the horizon.
I also made the assumption in hopes she had learned from the past, most recently when her tank hit empty in the Cincinnati final on the heels of a grueling Montreal title match, followed by attempting to play the fall season despite what was revealed to be a herniated disk in her back.
At this stage in her career, approaching 28 with a small frame and many injuries, yet also young and good enough to continue building on her underrated resume, the one they call Fighter Girl would benefit from picking her battles. She has the skills and time to bump her career up a couple tiers historically, but that will happen in Indian Wells, Rome, and Paris, not Dubai or Beijing, even if the level of tournament looks similar on paper.
A decade her junior, the same thought process applies to Felix Auger-Aliassime. The first ATP star born in the 2000s, Felix is the tour's best prospect since Novak Djokovic.
Albeit in a Rio draw that started soft and quickly melted under the Brazilian humidity, Auger-Aliassime became the first under-19 man to reach the final of an ATP500 (or higher) since way back in 2005, when Rafael Nadal was just making his name, and Richard Gasquet stock was at its peak.
FAA has more ATP points than every other under-19 player combined. His buddy Denis Shapovalov is the only other teenager in the top 125, and he'll be all alone once Shapo exits his teens in April.
All of this is to say: a 250 event in Sao Paulo should not have been on his radar.
While becoming the youngest man since Nadal to reach quarterfinals at consecutive events was impressive, playing yet another event of the Golden Swing with Indian Wells on deck spoke to the lack of a plan befitting a player of his potential.
In certain circumstances, this might have been passable (see Stefanos Tsitsipas wiping out a weak Marseille field before playing Dubai), but considering Felix's current frame, and the heavy, draining conditions in Rio, winning the title in Sao Paulo was not realistic.
And without a trophy, there was more to lose than to gain. For a grand total of 45 ranking points, Felix played three additional matches and took away prep time for switching surfaces in Indian Wells (for which he received a main draw wild card to avoid playing qualies).
Great players want to compete, but when you're a former #1, or a future #1, someone in the camp needs to keep an eye on the prizes that matter.