Emma Raducanu reunites with the coach who started it all

Nearly five years after one of the most stunning upsets in Grand Slam history, Emma Raducanu is turning back to the man who was with her when she made it happen.

The British number one has officially reunited with coach Andrew Richardson, the man who guided her to the 2021 US Open title, as she prepares to return to the tour ahead of Roland Garros.

Richardson was the coach in Raducanu's corner when she became the first qualifier in history to win a Grand Slam singles title, beating seven opponents without dropping a set at Flushing Meadows in September 2021.

Less than two weeks after that victory, Raducanu chose not to extend their arrangement, a decision that drew widespread criticism at the time. She explained she felt she needed a coach with more WTA Tour experience at the elite level.

What followed was a revolving door of coaching appointments. Eleven in total across five years, including stints with Torben Beltz, Dmitry Tursunov, Sebastian Sachs, Nick Cavaday, Francisco Roig and Mark Petchey, among others.

Some partnerships lasted months, some barely a handful of tournaments. None produced a result close to what Richardson had overseen in New York.

Now, with Raducanu ranked 37th and set to enter Roland Garros unseeded, the 23-year-old has gone back to the beginning.

"Grateful to have reconnected with someone who has known me for over a decade now and looking forward to building together one iteration at a time," Raducanu said in a statement confirming the reunion.

The path back to Richardson started quietly. Last month, Raducanu spent a week training with him at the Ferrer Tennis Academy in Spain, where Richardson has been based since leaving the tour.

She played down suggestions at the time that the arrangement would become permanent, saying she was not actively looking for a new coach following her split from Francisco Roig after the Australian Open in January.

But the week in Spain clearly changed the calculus. The partnership is now official, with Richardson joining Raducanu's team immediately in Strasbourg, where she will make her competitive return next week after more than two months away from the tour.

Richardson had previously spoken openly about the original split. In interviews, he revealed he had been keen to continue after the US Open and had a plan he wanted to put in place, but received a brief call from Raducanu's agent telling him they were going in a different direction. "There was a period of time after that when I was keen to re-negotiate the contract," he said. "I wanted to carry on."

Raducanu's 2026 season has been shaped largely by a post-viral illness that has kept her off the court since March.

After reaching her first WTA Tour final since the US Open at the Transylvania Open in Romania in February, she picked up a virus that affected her performances in the Middle East and at Indian Wells. She subsequently withdrew from events in Miami, Linz, Madrid and Rome as she prioritised her recovery.

With Roland Garros beginning on May 24, Raducanu has taken a wild card into the Strasbourg International to get competitive clay court matches under her belt before the French Open. She will enter Roland Garros without a seeding, having slipped to 37th in the world rankings.