MELBOURNE – Former US Open champion Emma Raducanu has started working with her childhood coach Nick Cavaday in a bid to rediscover her best form.
The 21-year-old Briton has had several coaches since rising to prominence by winning the 2021 US Open as a qualifier, including Nigel Sears, Andrew Richardson, Torben Beltz, Dmitry Tursunov and Sebastian Sachs.
But ahead of the Australian Open, which begins on Jan 14, she has reunited with Cavaday, according to the BBC. She faces Naomi Osaka in a charity match in Melbourne on Jan 9.
Cavaday also worked with Raducanu in London before Christmas. He was the head coach at the Lawn Tennis Association’s Loughborough Academy until last April.
“I’ve known Nick since I was 10 years old and he was helping me out the last week at the NTC (National Tennis Centre). Before that, the LTA helped me a ton,” Raducanu said last week at the Auckland Classic.
It was her first tournament in eight months due to injury. In 2023, she had operations on both wrists and an ankle.
In New Zealand, she won her opener against Elena-Gabriela Ruse before losing to eventual finalist Elina Svitolina.
Serena Williams’ former coach Patrick Mouratoglou was critical of Raducanu’s coaching churn, saying in December: “Whenever there are changes in terms of coaches, there are the project changes. So you cannot build something and also you need stability.
“The tour is the most unstable thing on the planet. Everything changes every week. It’s pretty tough emotionally to handle all those changes.
“So if you have changes also with your team, then it’s too much. So I wish for her that she finds someone that she trusts enough to be able to keep the team for long enough to achieve something, because the potential we know she has, she’s proven it by winning a Grand Slam.”
Raducanu is now ranked 299th in the world, having slipped from a career high No. 10 in July 2022.
Last week, she moved into the main draw of the Australian Open after American Lauren Davis pulled out of the year’s first Grand Slam with a shoulder injury.
Speaking ahead of her return to tournament action in Auckland, Raducanu said she no longer felt weighed down by the expectations that followed her New York triumph.
“Overall, I’m feeling positive and lighter. I think that for two years after the US Open I felt maybe a bit more weight on my shoulders, but now I feel completely fresh,” she said.
Raducanu has not crossed the second round of a Grand Slam since her Flushing Meadows triumph and has come in for her fair share of criticism, but said she was happy to be fit and ready to compete again.
“It’s nice not to have three casts on you. So just moving around and showering, (doing) everything you really appreciate, being able to do your own hair, stuff like that,” she added.
“I’m just happy to be back playing.” REUTERS, AFP
