Raducanu reunites with Richardson as full-time coach before Strasbourg return

The move is less a nostalgic reunion than a deliberate reset. Raducanu has been searching for continuity since her US Open breakthrough in 2021, cycling through Nigel Sears, Torben Beltz, Dmitry Tursunov, Sebastian Sachs, Nick Cavaday, Vladimir Platenik, Mark Petchey and Francisco Roig. Richardson, who had been working at the Ferrer Tennis Academy in La Nucia, Spain, is the latest attempt to rebuild a relationship that already produced the sport’s most startling title run of the decade.

Raducanu trained with Richardson in Spain last month for a few days before the partnership was extended into a full-time appointment. She said she was “grateful to have reconnected with someone who has known me for over a decade now” and said she was looking forward to “building together one iteration at a time.” For Raducanu, the key question is no longer whether the bond is familiar, but whether it can deliver measurable gains in a game that has lacked the steadiness she found as a teenager in New York.

That standard is high because the 2021 US Open remains one of the most remarkable runs in modern tennis. Raducanu won the title as an 18-year-old qualifier, became the first qualifier ever to win a Grand Slam singles title, and did it without losing a set across 10 matches, including three in qualifying and seven in the main draw. Her final against Leylah Fernandez was an all-teen championship match, and it ended with Raducanu standing alone at the top of the sport.