Emma Raducanu has split with coach Francis Roig, just one month after agreeing to extend their partnership for another year.
The writing was on the wall after the British No 1’s tame, muddled second-round exit from the Australian Open. After defeat to Anastasia Potapova, Raducanu said: ‘I want to be playing a different way.
‘I just want to hit the ball to the corners and hard. I feel like I’m doing all this variety, and it’s not doing what I want it to do. I need to work on playing in a way more similar to how I was playing when I was younger.’
It was apparent that there was a serious disconnect between player and coach and from that moment on this announcement felt inevitable.
Raducanu linked up with Roig in August, after Mark Petchey’s stint as interim coach had ended after Wimbledon.
The Spaniard has an impressive resume, with 18 years on the team of Rafael Nadal and work with former Wimbledon finalist Matteo Berrettini.
Emma Raducanu posted this message on Instagram confirming the split with Francis Roig
Roig and Raducanu started off well together but he has gone the same way as her other coaches
Raducanu will have to look for the 10th coach of her career.
Daily Mail Sport understand 27-year-old British former pro Alexis Canter will be joining her at her next event, the Transylvania Open in Cluj.
On Instagram, Raducanu shared a picture of herself with Roig on the golf course.
It was accompanied on her story with the caption: ‘Francis, thank you for our time together. You have been more than a coach to me and I will cherish the many good times we shared together on and off the court.
‘While we have come to the conclusion together that we ought not to move forward, please know that I am very grateful for all you have taught me and fond of our shared time.’
Former client, Feliciano Lopez, previously described Roig as the best technical coach in the world.
After linking up with Raducanu over the truncated winter training block, Roig worked on lengthening Raducanu’s backswing on the forehand, allowing for more spin.
And yet as soon as she arrived in Melbourne, Raducanu said ‘on these very quick courts it (her tweaked swing path) doesn’t really work’.
The British tennis star will now link up with her 10th coach having dismissed the last nine
Raducanu is pictured during training with Roig at the Australian Open before she crashed out
‘When I’m on the court,’ she continued. ‘I’m not trying to think about any particular technique, because even if I feel a particular way about a certain shot, it’s not the time to go into it.
‘It’s like, regardless of how you feel, you just have to try and buckle down and fight with what you have, whether it’s good or bad.’
With Raducanu’s history of hiring and firing coaches the dismissal comes as no surprise.
A little like Andy Murray, Raducanu is a great thinker about the game. She is always questioning her coaches, interrogating her technique but this can be a curse as much as a blessing.
Raducanu’s default after a setback is to get back to the practice court, back to tinkering with her serve or forehand but this is simply not the reality of professional tennis.
The calendar is relentless and if you step off the conveyor belt others will be carried ahead of you.
In the four-and-a-half years since she won the US Open, Raducanu has turned to many different voices in an effort to establish herself at the top of the game but without finding any real consistency in results.
She again found herself off court during pre-season because of physical struggles, this time a foot injury, and that is certainly a mitigating factor in an underwhelming three weeks Down Under recently.
Raducanu headed home having won just two of her five matches, and there was little positive to take from her performance against Russian-turned-Potapova in Melbourne.
While both struggled with the windy conditions initially, Potapova, ranked 55, settled towards the end of the first set, fighting her way back from 5-3 down.
Raducanu made a host of errors, particularly off the forehand, and looked despondent during a second set that quickly got away from her as she crashed out.
