By Alberto Amalfi | @Tennis_Now | Tuesday, July 25, 2023
Emma Raducanu will likely ride the coaching carousel throughout her pro career, says her agent.
The 2021 US Open champion has a habit of parting from coaches after a few months of working together.
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While some champions, including John McEnroe and Martina Navratilova, have said a consistent coaching presence could help the Briton, Raducanu's agent predicts she will continue to cycle through coaches throughout her career.
IMG Agent Max Eisenbud told The Tennis Podcast Raducanu is comfortable with coaching change.
"It's probably going to be like that for the rest of her career. That's what's comfortable for them," Eisenbud told The Tennis Podcast. "I'm not saying it is right or wrong, but that is the way they have done it, and I think it is fine to do things differently."
Raducanu has worked with five different coaches over the course of the past two years. She has posted a 24-27 record since her inspired run to the US Open championship.
The British baseliner split from Andrew Richardson, who coached her to the 2021 US Open crown, weeks after she made history as the first qualifer, male or female, to capture a Grand Slam singles championship. Raducanu has also spent months with coaches including Nigel Sears, Torben Beltz and Dmitry Tursunov before moving on. Tursunov was Raducanu's fourth coach in a 16-month span. Raducanu spent a short stint with coach Sebastian Sachs before parting company last month.
Last fall, Raducanu hired Jez Green, Andy Murray's former physio, to her team as fitness trainer.
Eisenbud, who has represented Maria Sharapova and Li Na, said Raducanu and her father, Ian, view coaches like professors at a university. As the student, Raducanu absorbs the most she can out of each coach, before moving on to a new coach.
"Her dad and Emma control all the coaching stuff," Eisenbud said. "All the way up through the juniors, they never had coaches a long time, so, for them, that's calm waters—having a coach for four to five months and then going on to someone else. "Emma and her dad have their own philosophy.
"Richard Williams (father of Venus and Serena) had his own philosophy, which was different, and Yuri Sharapova (father of Maria) had his."
The long-time IMG agent also suggested you can count great pro coaches on two hands.
"We are not sitting in a sport that has a plethora of great coaches—maybe eight, nine or 10 great coaches," Eisenbud said. "Most of the great, great coaches don't want to travel for 35 or 40 weeks a year and leave their families, so you have a small pool that are willing to travel and charge very little money, so they keep getting recycled and recycled. That is why you see coaches hopping around."
The 20-year-old Raducanu, who underwent surgery on her ankle and both wrists last May, is currently rehabbing and hopes to return before the end of the 2023 season.
Photo credit: Getty