{"id":501181,"date":"2026-02-24T15:14:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T15:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/501181\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T15:14:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T15:14:12","slug":"i-am-not-looking-for-a-new-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/501181\/","title":{"rendered":"I am not looking for a new coach"},"content":{"rendered":"

Emma Raducanu said that she is not looking to hire a new permanent coach after signing a reported \u00a32.6million sponsorship deal with Uniqlo. <\/p>\n

The British No1 parted ways with Rafael Nadal\u2019s former coach Francisco Roig<\/a> after the Australian Open and has since been travelling with her hitting partner Alexis Canter.<\/p>\n

Raducanu<\/a>\u2019s streak of hiring and firing coaches has inevitably made it trickier to find a replacement for Roig, but the 23-year-old insisted that she was content with her present set-up and wanted to continue focusing on returning to a \u201cmore aggressive style of playing\u201d before the Indian Wells Open next week. <\/p>\n

\"Australian<\/p>\n

Raducanu said that \u201cthe rapport was great\u201d with Roig, but that they did not align on aspects of her game<\/p>\n

ELLA LING\/SHUTTERSTOCK<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now I wouldn\u2019t say I\u2019m actively looking for a coach,\u201d Raducanu told the Guardian in Japan. \u201cI think I had a great experience with Francis in terms of how we got on so well \u2014 the rapport was great. I think in the end, we just weren\u2019t aligning on certain key aspects. But we still maintain a really good relationship.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now I have Alexis in my corner. He knows me as a person. He knows me as a player. And I\u2019ve actually had some success with him in the past year in Washington [where Raducanu beat Naomi Osaka in the second round in July] and Cluj [where she reached the final at the start of February], so it\u2019s going well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know the drills that I need to be doing right now in this moment in time, just repetition of doing those key fundamentals. I think I want to go back to that and [develop] a more aggressive style of playing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Transylvania<\/p>\n

Armed with a more aggressive style, Raducanu reached her first tour-level final since 2021 earlier this month<\/p>\n

ALEX NICODIM\/SHUTTERSTOCK<\/p>\n

Raducanu reached her first WTA Tour-level final since winning the US Open in 2021 in the Transylvania Open in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, earlier this month with Canter in her box, but a chest infection has hampered the world No25 since, forcing her to retire during her first-round match in Qatar<\/a> before suffering a first-round defeat in Dubai.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Cluj I picked up a virus, I think, at the start of the tournament,\u201d Raducanu said. \u201cSo I was dealing with that and the aftereffects. I had really long effects for the last three weeks. I\u2019ve been trying to clear them. So the Middle East trip was very difficult for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m getting ready for Indian Wells and just trying to get back to full health. And I still have a bit of time, so I\u2019m just looking forward to doing my best to be ready for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Raducanu has been associated with Nike since she was 15 years old \u2014 three years before she won the US Open \u2014 but a move to the Japanese clothing brand had been mooted since December. It teased the announcement with a social media post on Monday showing only a player\u2019s arm holding a tennis racket with few distinguishing features. <\/p>\n

The deal is an indication of Raducanu\u2019s enduring commercial power, despite her inconsistent form and injury and fitness concerns. Uniqlo has previously only signed sponsorship deals with Roger Federer, who reportedly left Nike for a ten-year contract worth $300million (about \u00a3222million), Novak Djokovic and Japan\u2019s Kei Nishikori. <\/p>\n

Raducanu remains one of the most popular active players in the sport, with her 2.9 million Instagram followers second only to the world No1 Aryna Sabalenka<\/a> \u2014 a more relevant figure to many brands than her world ranking. <\/p>\n

\"NINTCHDBPICT001061614275\"<\/p>\n

Uniqlo teased tennis fans with this image of a player and the words: \u201cWe\u2019re proud to welcome a new face to Uniqlo\u201d<\/p>\n

When the deal was confirmed on Tuesday a Uniqlo statement read: \u201cEmma will champion Uniqlo\u2019s LifeWear philosophy, which is committed to pursuing excellence, making meaningful contributions to society, and empowering the next generation.\u201d Reports have also suggested that Raducanu will play a role in designing her own kit.<\/p>\n

Raducanu\u2019s other blue-chip sponsorship deals have included Evian, British Airways, HSBC, Porsche, Dior and Tiffany & Co. She earned just over \u00a31million in prize money in 2025, but company filings showed that Raducanu\u2019s income from commercial interests amounted to about four times that figure.<\/p>\n

Raducanu\u2019s departure from Nike reflects a shift in their strategy towards investing heavily in a more select number of marquee names. Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and Sabalenka remain their key ambassadors, but the men\u2019s British No1 Jack Draper<\/a> switched to the Californian lifestyle brand Vuori last season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emma Raducanu said that she is not looking to hire a new permanent coach after signing a reported…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":501182,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-501181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}