Britain’s teenage tennis sensation Emma Raducanu has split from her coach who guided her to the historic US Open glory just two weeks ago.
The 18-year-old Raducanu believes that she needs a top-class coach to develop her game and fitness after she decided to dispense with the services of Andrew Richardson. Richardson first coached Raducanu between the ages of 11 and 13. He has very little experience on the WTA Tour and had only joined Raducanu’s team on a short-term contract after Wimbledon.
In a wide-ranging conversation with the British press, Radcanu said, “After Wimbledon, I was ranked around 200 in the world. And, at the time I thought Andrew would be a great coach to try and I went to the States. Never did I even dream of winning the US Open and having the run I did, and now I’m ranked 22 in the world which is pretty crazy to me.”
The US Open champion said, “It’s tough to have that conversation with anyone, but I need someone who’s had that professional tour experience, and has been through it, and seen players in my situation for many years, going through the same because it’s going to take a lot.”
It is the second time in the past couple of months that Raducanu has made a change in her backroom staff. She replaced the highly experienced Nigel Sears after the Wimbledon Open. She emphasizes that it was vital for her to find the right fit.
“The players at the top are serious competition and serious players. I just really need someone right now who has been through that and can really guide me along the way because I’m still very very new to everything,” Raducanu said.
2019 Wimbledon champion Simona Halep’s coach Darren Cahill who recently left the Romanian’s team is a potential candidate, but Raducanu said that she was in no rush to appoint a new coach.
“I don’t have anyone in mind,” said Raducanu. “Playing tournaments is not the best time to try out a coach. So in the preseason, when I’m done with whatever tournaments I play, I’m going to try some coaches out,” she added.
Raducanu admitted despite her meteoric rise to number 22 ranking in the world, she was looking to improve on a lot of aspects of her game.
The teenager said, “I think that’s what the most positive thing out of this whole experience is that I managed to win the US Open, but I feel like there are a lot of areas in my game that I can still develop. One part of that is physically I think I’m still very behind from where I need to be. Hopefully in the preseason that I’ll have can help with that. I think I can also add a lot more things into my game so I can have more variety and mix things up a bit.”
