Emma Raducanu has rehired Andrew Richardson, the coach who was in her corner for her U.S. Open win in 2021.
Richardson, will begin coaching Raducanu with immediate effect, starting Friday in France ahead of the Strasbourg International, a WTA 500 event which gets under way on Sunday.
Richardson, a 52-year-old former world No. 133 from Great Britain, was let go almost immediately after Raducanu’s fairytale win in New York as a qualifier five years ago, and has since been working at the Ferrer Tennis Academy in La Nucía, Spain.
Raducanu spent some time training with Richardson there in April, as reported by the Tennis Podcast, but said during a roundtable at the Italian Open in Rome last week that they were not working together permanently.
On Friday morning, however, Raducanu said in a statement shared by a representative that she is “grateful to have reconnected with someone who has known me for over a decade now and looking forward to building together one iteration at a time.”
Raducanu, who has worked with nine coaches during her career, has been without a permanent one since splitting with Francisco Roig in January following a disappointing Australian Open.
During a news conference in Melbourne after a disappointing loss to Anastasia Potopova that she wanted to get back to playing the sort of fearless, aggressive game style that had led to her early career successes. Appointing Richardson matches that desire, and throughout her career she has tended to return to people she knows and trusts.
Last year she linked up on an ad hoc basis with Mark Petchey, the former British player and now analyst, whom she had been coached by as a teenager. Prior to that she was coached by Nick Cavaday, another childhood coach, from December 2023 to January 2025. After splitting with Roig, Raducanu’s hitting partner Alexis Canter stepped in on an interim basis. Roig is now coaching Iga Świątek.
But Raducanu has barely played in that time, and has been dealing with a post-viral illness after first feeling unwell at the Transylvania Open in early February. She has not competed for more than two months since the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif., and pulled out of the Italian Open last week half an hour after telling reporters that she had “really turned a corner” and felt “so much better.”
Raducanu then took a wildcard for Strasbourg as she looks to get some clay-court matches in ahead of the French Open, following the prolonged absence which will see her ranking drop to No. 37 next week.
The Strasbourg tournament finishes Saturday May 23, the day before the French Open starts.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Tennis, Women’s Tennis
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