(Image: Tennis World USA)
Coach Andrew Richardson said his intention was to negotiate a long-term deal with Emma Raducanu but then he “got a brief call” from the Briton’s agent and that was the end of their partnership. After 2021 Wimbledon, Raducanu hired Richardson on a trial basis.
At the US Open two months later, Raducanu – who at the time was 18 – wrote tennis history by becoming the first qualifier to win a Grand Slam. When Raducanu announced she was splitting with the coach who guided her to a Grand Slam victory, many were left absolutely shocked.
Since the 2021 US Open, Raducanu has had four different coaches and the 20-year-old has received lots of criticism over her frequent coaching change.
Richardson on how his partnership with Raducanu ended
“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, and 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. This thing about ‘I wanted to go off and coach my son’ is not true, but it seems to come up all the time.
After probably 10 days to two weeks [following the US Open], 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,” Richardson told The Daily Mail.
Last year, Raducanu worked with coach Torben Beltz and Dmitry Tursunov. In late 2022, Raducanu announced Sebastian Sachs as her coach for the 2023 season. Raducanu is currently recovering from multiple surgeries and she is set to miss be out at least through the grass season.
