Emma Raducanu reveals surprise lessons from new coach at US Open | Tennis | Sport
Emma Raducanu is learning Spanish, football, golf and a backhand slice from her new coach. And the British No.1 also wants to be taught by Francis Roig how to beat the big players in Grand Slams – starting with Elena Rybakina at the US Open. Raducanu famously won the title here in 2021 without facing a top-ten player.
And although she has beaten Jessica Pegula and Maria Sakkari on grass and Emma Navarro in Miami this March, the world No.36 has struggled against Grand Slam champions. She lost her previous encounter with 2022 Wimbledon winner Rybakina 6-0 6-1 in only 55 minutes at the Sydney Classic earlier that year.
But Raducanu competed against Aryna Sabalenka at SW19. And after appointing Rafa Nadal’s former coach Roig for the US hardcourt season, she took a set off the world No.1 at the Cincinnati Masters earlier this month before losing two tiebreaks.
The Belarusian then went out to Russian-born Kazakh Rybakina in the next round to show the size of her task in the third round.
Raducanu, 22, said: “I still think I have a long way to go, but I think I have been making steps towards getting closer and narrowing that gap. I think I have to take confidence from my matches against Aryna in Cincy and Wimby.
“And I think Francis could be the missing link to beat the top players. To really take a step to be beating or making it close with the top 10 consistently, I need to be doing the things I’m doing with Francis now and I think he can really help get me towards that. We’ve only had a few weeks together, so I don’t know if it will come this week, but I do believe that over time we will get there.”
Roig’s coaching input was already apparent in her rapid second round win where she cut up Indonesian qualifier Janice Tjen with her backhand slice. “I knew the girl played a lot of slices but, in general, it’s something that I’ve just been working on to diversify my game,” she said.
“And I also want to beat Francis in a slice cross-court, so that’s my main motivation to do it so often. I have beaten him but he won’t like that I have told you that!” Relaxed Raducanu is enjoying getting to know Roig, 57, and his unusual warm-up technique.
“It is football!” she laughed. “I went on to the court (against Tjen) feeling pretty positive because I was kicking the ball well today. I had underspin on my kick and I was like flinging my foot.”
She planned to try another sport after her second-round win. “Francis and some friends play golf so I am going to try,” she said. “He brings a lot of good energy. He’s constantly joking around. I feed off that.
Raducanu already speaks Mandarin and Romanian and is learning “a few words, a few sentences” of Spanish. “In the car rides, he’ll sometimes be teaching me,” she said. “You might see some on-court coaching in Spanish or something.”
