Emma Raducanu is on the lookout for a fifth coach in just 15 months. Gone is Dmitry Tursunov less than three months into a partnership which had been showing promise towards the end of a difficult year.
In her last tournament, the Korea Open, the teenager reached the semi-finals for the first time since her fairytale US Open win last year.
But this time it is not of Raducanu’s doing, Tursunov having decided to part ways to work with a player ranked higher than the world No 68 and closer to the Russian’s California home.
Now, she finds herself back at square one and there will be those casting aspersions that she should be on the search for yet another coach at the end of her first season on the WTA Tour.
To date, Raducanu and father Ian have preferred to use individual coaches to use their expertise to mould the best player possible and then move on.
Traditionally, this hasn’t been the tennis way. Very few players have made it to the top of the game and stayed there without an established set-up around them.
That’s not to say this Raducanu philosophy can’t work, but despite the Tursunov exit, there are signs that the strategy is shifting. At this point of the season, when Raducanu is unlikely to play again bar perhaps the Billie Jean King Cup in Glasgow in November, the technical expertise of a coach is less pertinent. The key now is her strength and conditioning, currently her greatest weakness. She has retired from four matches this season and there have been a litany of injuries: hip, back, abdomen, glute and wrist. A first full season was always going to throw up issues for a changing body but she has suffered more than most, partly down to a fractured winter training block undone by Covid.
She now looks to have a long-term solution by employing Jez Green, Andy Murray’s former fitness guru in a period where he won Wimbledon, the US Open and Olympic gold.
While Murray and Raducanu are very different players, there are parallels with Murray having had a propensity to struggle physically early in his career. Green’s philosophy centres on movement, and Raducanu is already a greater mover so plays straight into his copybook. Plus, his approach with a player is built on a long-term approach — he worked with Murray for seven years.
On paper, this looks a perfect match and, although Raducanu finds herself looking for another coach, there are reasons for optimism.
