Emma changing with the seasons
RADUCANU IN HUNT FOR ANOTHER HEAD COACH
EMMA RADUCANU is looking for a fourth head coach since shooting to fame at last summer’s Wimbledon.
And Riccardo Piatti is a leading candidate – perhaps on a part-time basis – after the US Open champion trained at his Italian academy earlier this month.
Speaking from Greece last night, Piatti said: “It depends. I’m interested in working with everyone.”
The British No.1 yesterday announced she was splitting with German Torben Beltz after only five months and six tournaments together.
And the Bromley teenager said she now plans to prepare under a “new training model” which could see her work on a short-term basis with different coaches on different surfaces.
Raducanu spent a week with Piatti in Liguria before her first professional events on clay. The Italian, who has worked with Novak Djokovic and Maria Sharapova, could assume the head coaching role at the head of a team without being full-time on the road.
Raducanu, 19, will play this week’s Madrid Masters with the support of the LTA’s head of women’s tennis, Iain Bates.
“I want to thank Torben for his coaching, professionalism and dedication over the last half a year,” she said. “He has a huge heart and I’ve enjoyed our strong chemistry together.
I feel the best direction for my development is to transition to a new training model with the LTA supporting in the interim.”
Raducanu only started working with Beltz last November and achieved their best result at the Porsche Grand Prix Tennis last week, when she gave world No.1 Iga Swiatek a battle in the quarter-finals.
Raducanu and her father Ian have a short but busy history of making unusual coaching decisions.
She got her big break at Wimbledon last year under the guidance of Andy Murray’s father-inlaw Nigel Sears. He was then replaced for the US Open by Andrew Richardson.
Richardson’s contract was not renewed despite her making history, as her team sought a coach with more WTA experience.
Raducanu played the rest of the season without a full-time coach, Jeremy Bates helping out.