Emma Raducanu confirmed yet another coaching split after the Australian Open, deciding to part ways with Francisco Roig.
Raducanu’s split with Roig was foreseen after her early exit in Melbourne, where she fell in the second round of the hard-court event.
British number one Raducanu won her first match at the Australian Open against Mananchaya Sawangkaew, but lost to Anastasia Potapova shortly after.
Raducanu parted ways with Roig following that disappointing Grand Slam run, although she has since returned to winning ways.
Who should be Emma Raducanu’s next coach?
Kim Clijsters left ‘curious’ by Emma Raducanu splitting with Francisco Roig
Raducanu beat Greet Minnen at the Transylvania Open in her first match since splitting with Roig, which is a decision that tennis legend Kim Clijsters has now discussed.
The four-time Grand Slam champion said on Love All: “I am curious when I hear those kind of headlines, who is making those decisions? Is she doing it? Is it an agent? Is it a parent?
“There are a lot of things that I am curious about in that situation. It’s like who is making these decisions for her? Who pushes the panic button so quickly?
“She has had some really good coaches that she has worked with in the past and coaches that want to take their time, who know that it takes time to build and to make changes to a technique and to a tactical game plan. It takes time to work on that.
“To me it’s almost like she is a soccer club. It’s like the soccer approach, when they have a couple of bad games at the start of the season and they’ve just hired a new coach, and a few tournaments in and they are like ‘alright on to the next one’.
“I think it’s good that she learns to push through and find somebody that she has a really good connection with and then works hard on building a longer coaching relationship and having the longer approach in her mindset.”
Emma Raducanu needs coaching stability to get back to her best
Despite her relatively brief career so far, 23-year-old Raducanu will now approach double figures for coaches she has worked with.
It’s a truly remarkable situation, although importantly not every change has been entirely within her control.
Still, it is simply far too many coaches for a young player to have had in their career, with Roig’s lengthy spell with Rafael Nadal highlighting her failures to follow suit.
The Spaniard, who only started working with Raducanu in August, helped ATP legend Nadal win 16 of his 22 Grand Slam titles.
Emma Raducanu won her first Grand Slam too soon – Prove me wrong!
Nick Cavaday and Mark Petchey represent two of her other former coaches, while she won the 2021 US Open under the guidance of Andrew Richardson.
It remains to be seen who will be next to join the lengthy list, but for now she has a WTA 250 event to focus on.
World number 30 Raducanu is the top seed at the Transylvania Open, and now takes on Kaja Juvan in the round of 16 in Romania.
The Briton is clearly a top talent, but she really needs coaching stability to get back to the levels that she produced in New York to clinch her one and only WTA title to date.
