Much of the social media reaction to Emma Raducanu’s appointment of a new coach was comparable to Brenda from Bristol’s viral reaction to the snap election in 2017: ‘You’re joking. Not another one!’
Yes, Francisco Roig (known as Francis) is the eighth coach of Raducanu’s four-year career but this is far from the kind of chopping-and-changing which characterised the year or so after her US Open victory.
The 22-year-old has shown great maturity in stepping away from the alliance with Mark Petchey which has stood her in such good stead since Miami.
The problem was that, for Petchey, this was a part-time job. He is a pundit and commentator for the Tennis Channel and TNT Sport in America and so was fitting Raducanu in around those commitments.
He was absent from several of her matches and at the French Open he was on the practice court with Raducanu wearing slacks and a crisp blue shirt so he could dash straight to the booth. It all felt haphazard and a little amateurish.
There is nothing amateurish about Roig. One does not survive in the inner sanctum of Rafael Nadal for 18 years without a ferocious dedication to the craft of tennis. And this is a man who former world No12 Feliciano Lopez describes as ‘technically, the best coach in the world’.
Emma Raducanu has taken the decision to make a high-profile appointment in her set-up
The British No1 has been working successfully this year with Mark Petchey – but their deal was strictly short-term
The 22-year-old has now hired a seismic figure in the form of Rafael Nadal’s ex-coach Fransisco Roig
So in many ways this feels like a no-brainer appointment but it will not have been easy for Raducanu to move on from Petchey – a successful and, for her, hugely enjoyable partnership – and she deserves great credit for doing so.
The appointment of Roig is also a move away from the Raducanu formula of only working with those who knew her before her 2021 US Open triumph. It was in the Roman sunshine in May when I sat with Raducanu and one other journalist and listened to her open up about trust issues; how she had been ‘burned’ in both personal and professional relationships since she went from schoolgirl to world famous athlete.
It does not feel like too much of a leap to suggest a couple of those burnings came at the hands of coaches. There was Dmitry Tursunov who talked of ‘red flags’ after they stopped working together in 2022, and Vlado Platenik, who the day after a trial with Raducanu was announced this March gave a long interview to an eastern European website in which he talked of rejecting the job in the past because it was ‘career suicide’.
It is easy to see how Raducanu felt people were trading on her name to raise their own profiles; enjoying a loudhaller amplifying their usually obscure voices. Roig was happy to maintain a low profile while on the team of the most famous athlete in his country’s history so he is hardly likely to develop an urge for celebrity at the age of 57.
Still, it is a leap of faith for Raducanu to go outside her trusted circle. From Nick Cavaday, who stepped down in January for health reasons, to Jane O’Donoghue to Petchey, her box over the last two years has been like friends reunited. But this, too, was not a sustainable strategy; the well of former mentors was not bottomless and here she has stepped out of her comfort zone.
Kudos to Petchey too. He clearly relished the opportunity to prove his coaching credentials, the role gave him valuable cachet as a TV pundit and raised his profile back home, when the vast majority of his work these days is across the Atlantic. It would have been easy for him to cling to the Raducanu coat tails for as long as possible but he said after Wimbledon his only motivation was to act in the best interests of his friend, and in stepping aside for a full-time coach he has been true to his word.
Petchey has become a close friend but Raducanu must do more than rely on her trusted circle, which includes Jane O’Donoghue (right)
Crucial to Petchey’s tenure has been the return of Raducanu’s smile and bounce on court after a grim start to the year
One thing Petchey did above all else was bring back the Raducanu smile, after a grim first few months of this year including the stalker ordeal. There is little doubt Roig can improve her serve but can he maintain her smile?
He is used to working with a man who dedicated his entire soul to the singular pursuit of tennis greatness. Raducanu will never be like this; she is a renaissance woman with interests ranging from art to literature to food. Like her US Open mixed doubles partner Carlos Alcaraz, she believes her best tennis comes when she is relaxed and joyful on the court, and that this state can only be achieved with the right balance of relaxation and distraction off the court.
This is not to say Raducanu is not a hard worker – not one of her seven coaches has ever questioned her work ethic – but she is more aware than most of her peers of the world outside the 2,106 square feet of a tennis court.
If Roig can accept that, and Raducanu can learn to trust an outsider, then they could be on to something.
