Emma Raducanu is currently without a full-time coach after parting company with Francisco Roig in January and the 23-year-old Brit is now taking a different approach
Emma Raducanu has worked with a lot of coaches(Image: Robert Prange/Getty Images)
Emma Raducanu says she is no rush to find a new long-term coach after splitting with yet another earlier this year. Raducanu parted company with Francisco Roig after the Australian Open and it now taking a different approach to coaching.
Roig was the ninth coach in total and seventh full-time official coach to be axed by Raducanu during her career. The 2021 US Open champion opted to wave goodbye to Roig, who previously worked with Rafael Nadal for 18 years, due to a different of opinions on her playing style.
Since January, Raducanu has been working with her hitting partner Alexis Canter and is happy with the current set-up ahead of Indian Wells in California, where she faces Anastasia Zakharova in the first round.
The 23-year-old has previously worked with Nigel Sears, Andrew Richardson, Torben Beltz, Dmitry Tursunov, Sebastian Sachs, Nick Cavaday, Vladimir Platenik, Mark Petchey and Roig. The world no.24 is still working with Petchey on a day-to-day basis, but the 55-year-old isn’t available full-time due to his commitments as a broadcaster with the Tennis Channel.
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“Right now, it’s more about bringing my instincts back out, getting back in touch with myself,” Raducanu told BBC Sport in California. “I have had a lot of people telling me what to do, how to play, and it hasn’t necessarily fit.
“So I want to come back to my natural way of playing. That takes time to relearn because that’s something that has been coached out of me a little bit.
“I don’t necessarily want to have one coach in the role because anyone I bring in is straight away going to be scrutinised, even if it’s a trial. I might feel the pressure to stick with them, even if it’s not necessarily the right decision.
“I would love to have a coach that works well, but I don’t think it’s necessarily going to be easy to find one person and they are going to check every box.
“I definitely have my mind open to it. It’s just that I would rather someone not come in and tell me ‘let’s do this’, and I disagree with it but have to listen to them. So far Alexis has been really good, but I am definitely going to tap into a few people here and there.”
Raducanu spoke glowingly of Petchey’s influence after working with him at Wimbledon last summer. “I’d give him 11 out of 10,” she said after beating Mimi Xu in the first round at the All England Club.
“He’s been everything the last few months for me. I’ve really enjoyed being around him. He’s helped me so much on all fronts, tennis, off court. I think the most memorable moment… We’ve had quite a few. There was one hike we did in L.A. We walked for two and a half hours. We spoke.
“It was one of those really, I guess, deep conversations where I was like, okay, certain things I need to do better. It was just one that I could take away and really reflect on.”
