Emma Raducanu has been backed to make her way up the rankings again following her latest “very significant” coaching decision, according to Alex Corretja. The 2021 US Open winner has come full circle in terms of her coaches as she has reunited with Andrew Richardson, the man who was in her corner when she won her title at Flushing Meadows five years ago.
Richardson returns for a second stint following her decision to part ways with Francisco Roig in January. Before Roig she had worked with Mark Petchey while there were also spells with Vlademir Platenik, Nick Cavaday, Sebastian Sachs, Dmitry Tursunov and Torben Beltz.
She spent 14 months working with Cavaday and enjoyed great success with him as he helped her to return to the top 50 in the WTA Rankings after she slipped out of the top 300 following an injury layoff. But when he decided to step away from tennis to focus on his health after the 2025 Australian Open, she went back to trialling several coaches.
Emma Raducanu News Tim Henman gives the inside story on Emma Raducanu’s new coach Emma Raducanu gets ‘variety’ advice from Laura Robson ahead of French Open Raducanu his hopeful that she has settled on the right coach and when asked if she made a mistake letting Richardson go after winning the US Open, she replied: “I think at that time it was very difficult to say I made a mistake, because in my life everything changed upside down, and I didn’t really think I had the most handle over the situation in the sense that I was being pulled left and right. “I didn’t really know what was going on.
I think everything also happened very quickly then. A lot of experiences over the last few years, it taught me a lot of what I didn’t want, and it taught me that I really just value having people that I trust and connect with around me.
“So it’s really nice to have that feeling back.” And she will hope that positive feeling will give her a boost at this year’s French Open with two-time Roland Garros runner-up Corretja saying it was always going to take time for her to find a good balance after going from “zero to a thousand” with her US Open run in 2021. “Well, it’s a very significant move, you know, because she’s going back to where she felt the best in her career,” he told TNT Sports.
“So it’s a surprising move, and I didn’t see it coming, but I also understand it at the same time. “The situation with Emma, is the fact that what she’s done, it’s… it’s nearly impossible, it was unthinkable what she did at the US Open a few years back.
Hopefully she could find, like, a good balance and a good consistency on her game, and especially on her fitness, both mentally and physically, I think that’s the key – that’s where she’s really struggled. “Emotionally, it might not be easy to… to swallow everything that happened to her some years ago.
She went from zero to a thousand in a couple of weeks, and that’s very very difficult to deal with.” As for teaming up with Richardson again, the Spaniard feels he is the man to lead her back up the rankings again. “Well, the person that helped her to achieve that goal is back.
I think now she should take time to understand the process again, and I think she’s around 37 or 38 in the rankings, something like that, so… she’s still… she’s still there, but she… I mean, she has time, definitely,” he continued. “She’s still very young, and… she’s the only one who knows exactly what she’s been through, and what she needs to do to keep on improving.
But Andy (Richardson) is the one that lived her best moments with her, so psychologically that will be a huge boost. “I mean, she definitely has the game.
She has the ability, so there is no reason why she could not be at top 10 again. I’m not so sure if it’s this year or not, but why not?
I mean, there are young girls that they’re doing very well right now that might motivate her as well to do well, on, on her side.” *Alex Corretja will feature as part of TNT Sports’ Roland-Garros coverage* *Every match of Roland-Garros is live across TNT Sports and HBO Max*. tennis365.com”>Tennis365.
