Emma Raducanu has finally found a permanent coach, signing with her childhood mentor Nick Cavaday just in time for the Australian Open next week.
The unexpected winner of the 2021 US Open, who has qualified for the Australian Open main draw due to multiple player withdrawals, was unable to compete since last April due to surgeries on her wrists and one ankle.
Last June, she revealed that she was ending her working relationship with Sebastian Sachs. Sachs joins a lengthy list of coaches who have quickly joined and left Raducanu’s inner circle in a short period of time. Nigel Sears, Andrew Richardson, Torben Beltz, and Dmitry Tursunov have all had brief tenures with the British tennis player since her breakout at Wimbledon in 2021.
Cavaday, who was head coach of the LTA’s Loughborough Academy until April of last year, and Raducanu have begun working together in Melbourne before Tuesday’s planned charity match against Naomi Osaka.
“I have been acquainted with Nick since I was 10 years old, and he recently assisted me at the NTC [National Tennis Centre]. Prior to that, the LTA provided me with a significant amount of help,” Raducanu stated while competing at the WTA Tour in Auckland last week.
Jack Draper secured a spot in the final 16 of the Adelaide International by defeating Sebastian Baez for his first win of the season. The match lasted less than 80 minutes, with Draper dominating and hitting 17 winners to claim a 6-1, 6-3 victory over his Argentinian opponent.
The 22-year-old made it to his first tour-level final in Sofia last November. He will now compete against either Miomir Kecmanovic or Mackenzie McDonald for a spot in the quarter-finals.
Draper expressed his satisfaction with his performance today, acknowledging the challenge of playing in the first match of the year. Having played in this tournament last year, he is motivated to achieve success this week. He also mentioned feeling physically fit and pleased with his game.
Katie Boulter, the top-ranked female player from Britain, was not able to advance further in the tournament as she lost in the round of 32 to Ana Bogdan. Boulter was defeated 6-3, 6-4, despite initially having a lead in the second set. However, her Romanian opponent won four consecutive games and secured the win.
In the opening round of the tournament, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Anna Kalinskaya, both qualifiers, caused upsets by defeating seeded opponents.
During the beginning match on the centre court of the pre-Australian Open tournament, Pavlyuchenkova, who was a finalist in the French Open, beat the fifth ranked player Beatriz Haddad Maia with a score of 6-3, 6-4. In another match, Kalinskaya battled for almost three hours before ultimately defeating the fourth seed Barbora Krejcikova with a score of 7-5, 3-6, 7-5.
