Coaching Career
In the initial days of his coaching career, Bruneau taught at various clubs, helping the members with their games. He then joined a junior program with the intent of making it one of the best in Quebec. He was ultimately successful in doing so and devoted much of his time in harnessing local talents and helping them in becoming genuinely good players.
Eventually, he drew the attention of Tennis Quebec, and later, of Tennis Canada and took part in national competitions for both organisations. His first international trip as a coach was for an under-14 tournament. He eventually started rising through the ranks. He decided to work with older players as well. During this period, he was only in his 20s.
Bruneau became Canada’s Fed Cup coach sometime in late 2003 or early 2004. The Fed Cup is the biggest annual women's international team sports competition in the world when it comes to the number of nations that compete. In 2004, Bruneau guided a rookie Canadian team to a 4-0 finish in the American Zone Group I round. However, they were eliminated in the playoffs by El Salvador. Bruneau was the head coach of Team Canada’s national women’s team for the next six to seven years, helping numerous professionals with their games. When Eugenie Bouchard, the 2014 Wimbledon finalist, was 11 years old, she met Bruneau, who was impressed by “her maturity and work ethic”.
At one point, he quit the job as the requirement of travelling for 40 weeks a year was putting too much stress on his personal life. However, Tennis Canada brought him back by changing the job description so he could spend more time with his family.
In November 2009, Bruneau replaced Rene Simpson-Collins as the captain of the Canadian Fed Cup team. Simpson-Collins had served her national team as a player, coach, and captain for over two decades before her termination.
A perfect combination of a trainer and sports psychologist, Bruneau proved to be an excellent captain for the Canadians. In 2015, he led the team to World Group I, where they ultimately lost to the Czech Republic. They subsequently played in that year’s Fed Cup World Group play-offs, where they lost against Romania.
In 2019, Heidi El Tabakh replaced Bruneau as the new captain of the Canadian Fed Cup team. She had retired as a professional tennis player in 2016 and had been associated with Tennis Canada as a coach since then. Meanwhile, Bruneau was made the head coach of the National Women’s Program. His final Fed Cup roster was comprised of Bouchard, Bianca Andreescu, Françoise Abanda, and Carol Zhao.
Bruneau was still serving as the captain of the Canadian team when he started training Andreescu in 2016. One of the most dynamic young players of today, she perfectly blends her incredible power with the variety of strokes that she can employ. Martina Navratilova said that Andreescu is like Martina Hingis, “but with more power”. Caroline Wozniacki, after her defeat to Andreescu at the 2019 US Open, compared her style to that of Kim Clijsters.
Bruneau has been a quintessential part of Andreescu’s recent success. He knows exactly when to advise her to change her style and when to let her play her natural game. In March 2019, a video surfaced in which a clearly distraught Andreescu, who was trailing 6-4, 4-1 in her round one match at the Miami Open against Irina-Camelia Begu, was seen receiving a pep talk from Bruneau. She went on to stage a comeback and win the match.
