EMMA RADUCANU has a new coach for Wimbledon – the man who guided her to that historic US Open triumph.
Britain’s leading female tennis player has agreed to work again with former LTA coach Andrew Richardson, starting next week at the WTA 500 event in Strasbourg.
Spanish-based Richardson was by Raducanu’s side when she memorably won the New York Slam in 2021, winning ten matches (including three qualifiers) without dropping a set and on her tournament debut.
He will fill the role that has been vacated since a split with Francis Roig after the Australian Open in January – the Spaniard guru is now working with Wimbledon champion Iga Swiatek.
The partnership will be in place at the French Open – Raducanu is fit to play in Paris despite a recent bout of sickness – and for Wimbledon, which starts on June 29.
Raducanu, the world No30, said: “I’m grateful to have reconnected with someone who has known me for over a decade now and looking forward to building together one iteration at a time.”
CANU BELIEVE IT
Emma Raducanu could face shock rematch with US Open rival five years later
COURT SHORT
Book your Wimbledon seat and hotel from just £331 with this ace travel package
Last month, the 23-year-old star spent a few days at the Ferrero Tennis Academy – named after former world No3 David Ferrer – in Villena, Alicante, where Richardson is a coach.
According to her team, following her “long history” with Andrew, she felt it was a “good option” to work with Richardson as she began her return to training and clay preparation.
They will always have a shared bond given what happened in the late summer of 2021.
For that unexpected success Stateside, one of the most incredible stories in British sport this century, she banked £1.8million in prize money.
Emma Raducanu’s 2026 season so far
United Cup:
RR L 6-3 3-6 6-1 vs Maria Sakkari
Hobart:
R1 W 6-3 7-6 vs Camila Osorio
R2 W Walkover vs Magdalena Frech
L 6-2 6-4 vs Taylah Preston
Australian Open:
R1 W 6-4 6-1 vs Mananchaya Sawangkaew
R2 L 7-6 6-2 vs Anastasia Potapova
Cluj-Napoca:
R1 W 6-0 6-4 vs Greet Minnen
R2 W 7-5 6-1 vs Kaja Juvan
QF W 6-0 6-4 vs Maja Chwalinska
SF W 7-5 3-6 6-3 vs Oleksandra Oliynykova
F L 6-0 6-2 vs Sorana Cirstea
Doha:
R1 L 2-6 6-4 2-0 RET vs Camila Osorio
Dubai:
R1 L 6-1 5-7 6-2 vs Antonia Ruzic
Indian Wells:
R1 Bye
R2 W 6-1 6-3 vs Anastasia Zakharova
R3 L 6-1 6-1 vs Amanda Anisimova
Yet when they returned to the UK for a LTA-organised ‘Homecoming’ celebration, the pair surprisingly went their separate ways and it made headline news.
There had been talk at the time that Richardson was reluctant to travel due to family reasons.
In an interview in May 2023, Richardson said he wanted to carry on in the role but his services were not retained.
Richardson said: “The fact of the matter is that I had a nine-week trial contract that both Emma and I thought was a good idea to see how we would get on.
“It ran through to the end of the US Open, stopping immediately afterwards.
“There was a period of time after that when I was keen to re-negotiate the contract. I wanted to carry on, and I had a plan that I wanted to put in place for Emma.
“After probably 10 days to two weeks I didn’t have a contract.
“We were in the process of re-negotiating and then I got a brief call from her agent telling me they were going to go in a different direction, and that was the end of it.”
Raducanu has been criticised in the past for hiring-and-firing coaches and deciding not to build a long-term back-up team.
On the WTA Tour, Raducanu started out with Nigel Sears at Wimbledon in 2021 – where she reached the last 16 on her debut – and then Richardson was by her side during that famous Big Apple run.
After that she was guided by German Torben Beltz, Russian Dmitry Tursunov, German Sebastian Sachs, Englishman Nick Cavaday – a childhood friend – and then Slovakian Vladimir Platenik, who lasted two weeks.
Mark Petchey stepped in to help in March 2025, the month after she was subjected to a stalker situation in Dubai, and he was by her side on an interim basis until the Wimbledon Championships that summer.
Roig was involved for two Slams – the 2025 US Open and 2026 Australian Open – and Raducanu was even learning words of Spanish to communicate with him.
Read the full article here
