Emma Raducanu again urged to ‘stick to one coach’ with Sebastian Sachs hailed as ‘a great choice’
Emma Raducanu’s new interim coach Sebastian Sachs has been described as a “pretty down-to-earth guy” and the former US Open champion has been urged to give him a “little more time than the other coaches”.
It emerged last week that Raducanu had started working with Sachs, but confirmed over the weekend that he has not yet been employed on a permanent basis as he is on a trial basis until the end of the year.
“He’s a really calm influence. He’s on it, switched on, and yeah, I’m excited to see how it goes,” the British No 1 said.
The 30-year-old Sachs is one of the youngest coaches on Tour, but he comes with a lot of experience as he has worked with Belinda Bencic, Victoria Azarenka and the German women’s Fed Cup team.
Last year he helped Bencic to win gold in the singles at the Tokyo Olympics while he also coached Wimbledon semi-finalist Julia Goerges.
Former world No 24 Barbara Rittner is currently the captain of Germany’s Fed Cup team and she has experience of working with the up-and-coming Sachs.
“I met Basti seven or eight years ago in Stuttgart, and I asked him to be a hit partner for my young girls,” she told The Telegraph. “It turned out to be perfect. He was a very talented junior who had never been on the main tour, so if you told him ‘okay, play as well as you can’, they wouldn’t stand a chance. But he could find the right range for each player to make it a close game.
She added: “Basti is a pretty down-to-earth guy. He really liked all the girls. He has a good eye for footwork and technique together. And for his young age, he already has a lot of experience. It’s very demanding to keep the focus and I think it’s a great choice for Emma.
“I hope he gets a little more time than the other coaches. And because also I think Torben Beltz [who had a five-month stint with Raducanu just over a year ago] who was doing a good job. Emma just needs to focus maybe more on tennis and just stick to one coach.”
Rittner was of course refereeing to the fact that Raducanu has had four different coaches in the past 18 months as she has worked with Dmitry Tursunov, Beltz, Andrew Richardson and Nigel Sears.
Former world No 9 Andrea Petkovic, who retired earlier this year, was part of the German Fed Cup squad that trained with Sachs and she is also pleaded for patience.
“It’s really important to have a coach that can also play with you,” she told The Telegraph. “First of all, it helps the coach to get a better feel for your game and where you can improve. And then, if you are out of rhythm, it’s nice to have somebody that is on your team and on your side to hit with you [as opposed to a rival player].”
She added: “I think is great with Basti is that he’s a very earnest person, very ambitious and very diligent.
“He really improves as a coach all the time. You can see that he’s gained quality and gained some experience on tour, and I think he really knows what he’s doing.
“He’s a very amicable guy, so you get along with him very easily. That’s a huge thing that people sometimes forget, but it plays a big part in coaching and tennis. You spend so much time together and far away from home under high-pressure situations.”
