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Radwanska hires Navratilova

London - Tennis legend Martina Navratilova is to coach former world number two Agnieszka Radwanska after Christmas, the Polish star has announced.

The 2012 Wimbledon finalist took to Twitter late on Monday night to announce the news, saying: "So happy to announce @Martina as the newest member of my coaching team!"

Navratilova, an 59-time Grand Slam winner across singles, doubles and mixed doubles disciplines, will help Tomasz Wiktorowski in her first major coaching role.

"I did not sleep very well last night, thinking about getting back into match mode and the competitions," Navratilova told the WTA website.

"I am really excited about this opportunity to join Agnieszka's team and work with Tomasz and it is going to be a fun challenge."

The 25-year-old Pole is currently ranked sixth in the world and has never won a Grand Slam, reaching just the one final two years ago.

Navratilova, on the other hand, won 18 singles Grand Slam titles as well as 31 in doubles and 10 in mixed doubles.

The Czech-born 58-year-old, a naturalised American, spent 332 weeks as world number one in singles and also a record 237 weeks as No.1 in doubles.

She won a record nine Wimbledon singles titles.

"I am absolutely delighted that Martina has agreed to help me and my team next season," Radwanska said.

"She is my idol in tennis and I am honored we will be working together. Her achievements speak for themselves and I hope that I can learn from all her experience.

"My goal is to win a Grand Slam, so to have someone with Martina's accomplishments in my corner is going to be hugely advantageous and give me a big boost."

Navratilova becomes the latest in a line of so-called "super-coaches" to be hired by top professional players.

Britain's Andy Murray hired former world number one Ivan Lendl between January 2012 and March 2014 before then turning to former Wimbledon champion Amelie Mauresmo towards the end of this year.

Men's world number one Novak Djokovic is being coached by Boris Becker while record 17-time Grand Slam winner Roger Federer has Stefan Edberg in his corner.

Back in the second half of the 1980s and early 1990s, Becker and Edberg had a thrilling rivalry, particularly at Wimbledon, where the German won three tittles and the Swede two.

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