What Emma Raducanu’s coach said midmatch which proves he’s the perfect fit for her
Emma Raducanu came through a rollercoaster tie against Kamilla Rakhimova at Queen’s to book her place in the semi-finals of her home tournament.
The British star won the match 6-3, 7-5, but it wasn’t as easy as the scoreline made out.
Raducanu and Rakhimova swapped several breaks of serve and the British No. 1 suffered a scary looking fall during the second set.
After a medical timeout, Raducanu bounced back to take the second set and match to confirm a semi-final match with Iva Jovic at the London event.
Raducanu looked in trouble during much of the second set and her coach, Andrew Richardson, became very vocal to try and turn her form around.
The British star looked down on herself and she constantly looked for advice from her coach.
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Richardson could be heard saying: “Get on with it, be brave, aggression and change direction to make her move” during the match and Raducanu genuinely looked to be taking the advice on board.
She bounced back following the words of advice to get over the line, which says a lot about the working relationship between Raducanu and Richardson.
Raducanu immediately picked up on the ‘change direction’ line and it immediately worked during a blistering second set comeback from the Brit.
It’s no secret the amount of coaches Raducanu has had over the years and she has not seen eye-to-eye with many of them both on and off the court.
Things seem different with Richardson and it’s not hard to see why.
Richardson oversaw Raducanu’s best-ever moment as she lifted the 2021 US Open as a qualifer and that has clearly built up a level of trust between them.
On this display, Raducanu and Richardson’s working relationship clearly works and it is helping the star find the best form she has found all season.
At appearance in the Queen’s semi-final is her second final four appearance of the season and her first at a WTA 500 event. The star reached the final of the WTA 250 Translyvania Open earlier this year, where she lost to Sorana Cirstea.
Many thought Raducanu would head to the Berlin Open next, but she is set to stay on home soil as she gears up for Wimbledon.
The star next heads to Nottingham, where she has received a wildcard, which will be her final tournament before her fifth appearance at Wimbledon.
In her first four appearances, Raducanu has reached the fourth round twice, one third round, and one second round. She holds a 69% win rate at her home Grand Slam, having won 9 of her 13 matches.
