Emma Raducanu’s former coach credits her ‘demanding’ work ethic
Emma Raducanu has been praised by former coach Dmitry Tursunov, despite their working relationship coming to an end last year.
Raducanu began working with the Russian ahead of the 2022 American hard court swing, before parting ways after the British No.1’s last tournament of the year in Ostrava.
Following the split Tursunov was full of praise for Raducanu personally, but declared that there were some ‘red flags’ within her setup, “We didn’t agree on the terms and there were some red flags that just couldn’t be ignored.”
He added, “Our trial period was over at the US Open but I stuck around, trying to see if there was going to be a way to impress the team. I really wanted to make it work.”
Raducanu did achieve some improved results under Tursunov’s guidance, reaching the semi-finals in Seoul and convincingly beat former No.1’s, Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka, in Cincinnati.
Speaking on the Craig Shapiro Podcast Tursunov has opened up about the 2021 US Open champion, four months on from their split, “I mean, with me, she was [a hard worker]. Sooner or later, she’s just gonna sort it out.”
He continued, “She’s too smart of a person not to sort out you know. She loves tennis too much not to figure it out.”
“It’s just a question of how long it’s gonna take her and how difficult the road is going to be. But, I think she’s the person who is willing to go down a bumpy road.”
Following leaving Brit’s camp, Tursunov described the No.81 as a ‘minimum one-year project’ and Raducanu herself as spoke about having age on her side.
“She’s super young. But, she’s very demanding of herself and she pushes herself a lot. She’s super tough on herself but to me, I felt like she’s an incredible and intelligent person. When you talk to her, you just forget, she’s 19 or 20. And so, in that sense, I really enjoyed every second of it,” said Tursunov.
Tursunov is now working with Belinda Bencic, who has already won two WTA titles in 2023, to which she has described her upturn in form as ‘the Tursunov effect’.
Emma Raducanu is working with Bencic’s old coach Sebastian Sachs, in somewhat of a swap deal, and makes her return to the match court for the first time since the Australian Open, next week, when she plays at the Texas Open.
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