MY ACCOUNT
Emma Raducanu has appointed Torben Beltz as her new coach almost seven weeks after parting company with Andrew Richardson.
The 18-year-old rose to international fame in September when she pulled off the incredible feat of clinching the US Open before ever even winning a single match on the WTA Tour.
Raducanu beat fellow teenager Leylah Fernandez to become the first qualifier in tennis history to win a grand slam and youngest winner of a women’s major since 17-year-old Maria Sharapova took the Wimbledon title in 2004.
But she announced soon after that she and Richardson were no longer working together, with Raducanu continuing in the meantime without a coach as she scoured for someone with more WTA Tour experience.
Since the US Open, she has played just five matches and lost three of them, the latest coming on Tuesday as she suffered a 6-1 6-7 7-5 defeat to Wang Xinyu at the Linz Open, where Raducanu was the top seed.
But as she looks ahead to starting pre-season at the end of November, Raducanu will begin working with Beltz in the hope of building on her incredible breakthrough year.
The German was Angelique Kerber’s coach during her US Open and Australian Open successes in 2016, and Raducanu is excited to get started.
Speaking after her defeat in Linz, Raducanu said: “You guys cracked it! It’s obviously a great privilege to be working with such an experienced coach.
“I’m definitely very excited to work with him throughout the pre-season and into next year. I’m feeling excited about all the work that is to come.
“I think he brings a lot of experience. Obviously he’s worked with Kerber, who’s such a great player and has done extremely well, won three slams. I think that experience definitely helps with someone as inexperienced as me.
“He can help guide me through, which I feel really confident about, and also he’s a really positive, cheerful guy who brings great energy to the team, so I think that’s also important when you’re travelling on the road for quite a long time on the tour.”
