Carlos Rodriguez has emerged as the favourite to become Emma Raducanu’s next coach, Telegraph Sport understands, as recruitment for the US Open champion’s team begins to take shape.
Raducanu insisted last week that she would wait for the right candidate to emerge. But it is thought that Rodriguez, who coached Li Na to the 2014 Australian Open title, has been identified by her family and agents as a leading contender.
Raducanu’s immediate circle are a tight-knit group, but the word circulating among British tennis insiders is that IMG – the super-agency which manages Raducanu – have been working on a preferred coaching solution since August.
The connection with Li Na would surely play well with Raducanu herself, given that the first Chinese slam champion was her childhood idol. Before Li, Rodriguez made his name with the young Justine Henin, whose graceful and powerful movement has been compared to Raducanu’s own.
This next appointment is an important one. Yes, the Raducanu family’s policy of using multiple coaches – sometimes for short-term stints, sometimes working simultaneously – has proved successful throughout her teenage development years.
But none of the really big-name coaches will want to work with her if she continues to change coach so regularly. Even in the short time since Raducanu emerged into the public eye this summer, we have already seen two coaches depart: Nigel Sears after Wimbledon and Andrew Richardson after the US Open.
In both cases, these men had only been given the role for specific periods – Sears for the grass-court season, Richardson for the six-week American tour that concluded with US Open glory. At some stage, though, Raducanu will need to settle into a more lasting partnership.
Such decisions will be taken in alliance between Ian Raducanu, Emma’s father, and Max Eisenbud the head of IMG’s player department. As an agent, Eisenbud’s own career took off with the rise of Maria Sharapova as a 17-year-old Wimbledon champion, so he has relevant experience for these unusual times.
Eisenbud likes to turn to a small coterie of well-credentialed coaches when he makes these sorts of appointments. The likes of Sven Groeneveld and Thomas Hogstedt – who both worked with Sharapova – are known as “Eisenbuddies” because they pop up regularly with IMG clients.
In Rodriguez’s case, he put in a short shift with Amanda Anisimova – another Eisenbud protégé who has been marketed as the next Sharapova – at the end of 2019 and the start of 2020. This partnership did not establish itself, but the situation was an unusual one. Anisimova’s beloved father Konstantin suffered a fatal heart attack in the summer of 2019, aged just 52, and the loss has affected her deeply.
Rodriguez – who is 57 – is understood to have returned to his tennis academy in Beijing after he split with Anisimova last year. He is known as a tough disciplinarian and an intense character, as well as a man who does not particularly relish the travelling lifestyle of a full-time coach.
But as he told Open Court reporter Stephanie Myles last year, Rodriguez is prepared to go back on the road if the player in question is worth it. “Only if it’s an interesting project both on the human and professional sides,” he said then.
Raducanu – who plays Aliaksandra Sasnovich overnight in her first match since the US Open – has been seen training in Indian Wells with Jeremy Bates, who is coaching British No6 Katie Boulter and also works for the Lawn Tennis Association as a women’s national coach.
Raducanu has entered three more events before the end of the season – in Moscow, Cluj-Napoca and Linz – and could also potentially play at the WTA Tour Finals in Mexico. The expectation is that she will trial a new coach once her season is done, although this raises the question of who – if anyone – will accompany her to her remaining events of the year.
Were Rodriguez not to prove a good fit, then Esteban Carril – the Spaniard who helped Johanna Konta to climb the rankings – would be a strong alternative. So would Groeneveld, were he not already working with another woman who achieved sudden grand-slam success: Canada’s Bianca Andreescu.