Emma Raducanu believes that her new coaching partner with Francisco Roig can help to take her game to the next level while trying to continue her recent rises.
“First impressions are that things are going really well,” said Raducanu, moving for the first time in an interview with The Guardian. “We did it together a few days after Wimbledon and I was really happy with how it went. I’m just so excited to have him on board, so much experience. I am really looking forward to going.”
By hiring Roig, Raducanu has added a wealth of experience to her team. A former player with a career-high singles ranking of No. 60 in 1992, Roig came to the prominent place as an old member of the Rafael Nadal coaching team, together with Toni Nadal, Rafael’s Uncle and Coach, while the Spaniard built one of the big career. Roig decided to end his 18-year partnership with Nadal in 2022 and he later briefly coached the injury-sensitive Italian Matteo Berrettini.
Although Raducanu’s many coaching changes in her career have been a big story, this agreement comes to another point in its development. Raducanu has compiled a consistent series of quality tennis in recent months; She clearly plays with faith in the field and seems to be in a more positive place, away from the court. Raducanu has been working on an ad hoc base at Mark Petchey since March, but Petchey, who is also a broadcaster, could not be committed to working with her every day. The couple remains in close contact.
Now on no 33 in the WTA ranking and 25 in the WTA race, a good run in Cincinnati would lead to being sown for the first time on a Grand Slam tournament since her open points of the US fell. Raducanu, 30th sown, has received a first round day and is confronted with a qualification or happy loser in Cincinnati.
After a short trial period after her run to the third round in Wimbledon this year, Raducanu chose to work with Roig and they agreed a contract until the end of the year. She hopes that he can help her take another step forward: “I think I can certainly improve many of my photos, only the quality of them,” Raducanu said.
“I think I have been good at being creative, demolishing, playing the big points well, but I think the overall quality of my game should be better. And I see that when I play the real top players where I can’t run and scrap, wait for them to miss. I think I have to improve. And yes, I hope he can help me with that.”
Raducanu and Roig started their partnership with a long training day on Tuesday, after her morning sparring session with Rebecca Sramkova van Slovakia with an evening training session on a remote court with Roig alone. There was a lot of laughter in addition to their intensive work. Raducanu then pushed her media students back on Wednesday to spend extra time on the practice court and then ended her day with another session.
That is the nature of professional tennis, where players and their team members spend a significant period together while traveling on the Tour, another challenge for Raducanu and Roig will be to connect on a personal level. The vast Ohio roads can turn out to be an ice breaker between them. In Cincinnati the placed players get cars to drive to and from the touring schedule. “I was actually driving the airport,” said Raducanu.
“I didn’t know I had a car, so I landed, and they were:” Oh, you have a car, “and it’s this huge Cadillac escalade. So I have something like:” This is like a bus. “Of course we are used to driving small cars, small roads, so I was a bit tight. But it’s ok.
Since then, Raducanu has transferred the driving responsibilities to Roig. Just like with his coaching capacities, her first impressions of his driving skills are positive: “So far so good,” she said smiling. “It has also been tested, in the dark, in the rain, in the sun. It’s fine.”
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