Shahar Peer has sacked coach Craig Kardon after just seven months.

The split came as a surprise as Kardon, who used to train Martina Navratilova, had taken Peer to within a whisker of the top 10 for the first time in her career. Kardon was 23-year-old Peer's eighth coach.

Peer travelled to the Miami Open without a coach this week and suffered a shock second-round defeat against Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain. She has been training with Harold Solomon, the Jewish-American player who was in the top 10 in the late 1970s, over the past few days. It remains unclear whether Solomon, who has coached Monica Seles and Jennifer Capriati, will be given the role permanently.

Andy Ram and Jonathan Erlich had their best tournament of the year after knocking out the fifth seeds to reach the last eight in Miami.

● The Israel Tennis Centre in Ramat Hasharon has cancelled the ATP Israel Open tournament after just three years.

The $100,000 prize money, which made the Israel Open one of the richest tournaments on the second-tier Challenger circuit, will now be allocated to three Futures tournaments instead.

The cash-strapped Israel Tennis Centre will save an estimated $200,000 in costs surrounding the Israel Open.

The ITC said that the changes were part of a greater focus on nurturing young, talented players and that in total 12 Futures tournaments will now be held in Israel each year. It had been hoped that the Israel Open would help leading Israeli players gain rankings points but during the three years that the tournament was held no Israeli managed to get past the quarter-finals.

The retirement of Noam Okun and Harel Levy has also reduced the number of Israeli players who would have drawn crowds to the tournament.