Emma Raducanu has no immediate plans to appoint a new coach as she attempts to kickstart a frustrating season in the US next month. The British No 1 will play at Indian Wells and in the Miami Open in March without a full-time replacement for Francisco Roig – her ninth coach since she turned professional – with whom she parted company after her second-round exit at the Australian Open in January.
“Right now I wouldn’t say I’m actively looking for a coach,” Raducanu says in Tokyo, where on Tuesday she was unveiled as a global brand ambassador for the Japanese clothes retailer Uniqlo after ending her association with Nike.
“I think I had a great experience with Francis in terms of how we got on so well … the rapport was great. I think in the end, we just weren’t aligning on certain key aspects. But we still maintain a really good relationship.”
Raducanu, who has been without a tournament win since her shock victory in the US Open in 2021, said she would go into Indian Wells and Miami – where last year she reached the quarter-finals – with the former British pro Alexis Canter, who oversaw her progression to the final of the Transylvania Open last month.
Right now I have Alexis in my corner,” she says. “He knows me as a person. He knows me as a player. And I’ve actually had some success with him in the past year in Washington [where she overcame Naomi Osaka in the second round] and Cluj … so it’s going well.
“I know the drills that I need to be doing right now in this moment in time … just repetition of doing those key fundamentals. I think I want to go back to that and [develop] a more aggressive style of playing.”
The 23-year-old has battled injury and illness since she announced her arrival on the world stage five years ago at Wimbledon. Last month she retired during the third set of her first-round match with the qualifier Camila Osorio at the Qatar Open, having tried to play on after taking a medical timeout. Raducanu had been looking to move on from the disappointment of losing in straight sets against the home favourite Sorana Cirstea in the Transylvania Open final, a match she described as “very difficult emotionally and physically”.
After overcoming what appeared to be a viral infection picked up in Romania, Raducanu said she was on the way to a full recovery.
“In Cluj, I picked up like a virus, I think, at the start of the tournament,” she says. “So I was dealing with that and the after-effects … I had really long effects for the last three weeks. I’ve been trying to clear them. So the Middle East trip was very difficult for me.
“I’m getting ready for Indian Wells and just trying to get back to full health. And I still have a bit of time, so I’m just looking forward to doing my best to be ready for that.”
Wimbledon is still several months away, but Raducanu conceded that she was already “incredibly excited” by the prospect of playing on home soil this summer.
“That month of the year on the grass is something really special that we all look forward to as Brits,” she says, recalling her Wimbledon debut in 2021, where she reached the fourth round as a wildcard ranked 338th. Weeks later in New York she became the first British woman to win a grand slam title since Virginia Wade in 1977.