British star Emma Raducanu recently shared her thoughts on her split from Francisco Roig, a decision that followed her second-round exit at the Australian Open. The World No. 24, who trained with Roig from August last year to January, has shared that it was the latter who initiated the split and that they ended their partnership on good terms, with no bad blood between them.
Emma Raducanu Reveals Details of Split With Coach Francisco Roig
Raducanu is all set to begin her Sunshine Swing with the WTA 1000 event, the BNP Paribas Open, which will be held at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden from March 4-15, with an elite lineup featuring World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Świątek, Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina, Coco Gauff, and others.
She will enter the tournament in California as the 25th seed, coached by Mark Petchey, with whom she worked briefly last season. She is working with Petchey again after Roig, who served as an alternate coach to Spanish legend Rafael Nadal from 2005 to 2022, decided to part ways with her.
During her recent interview with Sky Sports ahead of her Indian Wells competition, the Toronto-born British star expressed, “After Australia, me and Francis were talking. We have a great relationship, we could have a really open and honest conversation.”
She continued, describing how he initiated the decision to part ways: “He ended up saying, ‘look, I don’t think this is going in the way we both want it to,’ so he ended it, really. In a way, I think we had a few moments where we weren’t agreeing on a few things.”
However, despite another coaching change, Raducanu maintained that she still has a cordial relationship with Roig and was happy to see her former coach, who is now coaching French star Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard. She added, “Other than that, we still maintain a great relationship, and I’ve seen him here. It’s been great to see a familiar face, a good face around. It’s nice to see him. We had a great chat, and it’s all good.”
Apart from Petchey, Raducanu is being supported by her hitting partner, Alexis Canter, who coaches her when needed. Furthermore, the 2021 US Open champion will still be looking to hire a full-time coach, as she shared with the Guardian: “I definitely have my mind open to it. It’s just that I would rather someone not come in and tell me ‘let’s do this,’ and I disagree with it, but have to listen to them. So far Alexis has been really good.”
In her round of 64 match, Raducanu is set to face Russian player and former World No. 79 Anastasia Zakharova, marking their second meeting after Raducanu lost to Zakharova in 2019.
