Raducanu axes coach after five months
Emma seeks her third guru since Wimbledon
EMMa RadUcanU’S restless search for pearls of tennis wisdom is under way again, just as her season heads into its most important phase.
the road may lead to italy after German torben Beltz yesterday became the third coach since Wimbledon to part with the US Open champion, despite her promising start to the clay court season. after cushioning his departure with warm words, she spoke cryptically of the desire to ‘transition to a new training model’.
in practice one option being explored is spending more time with veteran italian mentor Riccardo Piatti, who runs his own academy just across the French border near Monte carlo. Piatti has an impressive c.v. that includes work with novak djokovic and former world no3 ivan Ljubicic. it was to his camp, where he has a large staff, that she went at the start of this month after a disappointing exit at the Miami Open that looks to have sealed Beltz’s fate.
ever since her visit the tennis grapevine has been humming with suggestions that the German was not long for his job. despite two weeks in which she exceeded expectations on clay, there was no stay of execution.
Last week Raducanu made the quarter-finals in Stuttgart before putting in a strong performance against world no1 iga Swiatek. So the timing will, again, be seen as distinctly odd to outsiders.
that was the case when she got rid of nigel Sears after making the fourth round of Wimbledon and even more so when she did not renew her deal with andrew Richardson, his successor who was by her side for the astonishing win in new York.
Piatti, 63, would not travel a great deal but will be at the French Open, the first of three Grand Slams which take place within four months.
in the immediate future she will be helped out this week at the Madrid Open by iain Bates, head of women’s tennis at the Lawn tennis association. it was another Bates from the Lta, Jeremy, who temporarily stepped in when Richardson was deemed surplus to the next stage of her development.
James Ward, another former British davis cup player, has also been in the mix of late, acting as a hitting partner.
the norms of tennis thinking around coaching have long needed to be suspended around Raducanu, who from a young age has looked to glean information from numerous sources. during her formative years, father ian spoke of certain coaches being the right fit to help with certain strokes. that is not unlike having a specialist putting coach in golf, although it is not conventional thinking in tennis. He is said to believe that most expertise can be extracted from a coach within the first six months. One concern is that the chopping and changing creates a lack of stability around someone who finished her a-levels just a year ago and is still adjusting to the demands of an unprecedentedly swift rise. it was not even that there had been any falling out with Beltz (below), a proven coach known for his amiable nature. ‘He has a huge heart and i have enjoyed our strong chemistry during the time together,’ Raducanu said. the danger is that, with every change, more coaches with the right experience will look at the prospect of working with the British no1 and decide that the precarious nature of employment is not worth it. But this is the most individual of sports and what works for many does not necessarily meet the requirements of the elite few.