{"id":597605,"date":"2026-05-22T07:45:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T07:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/597605\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T07:45:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T07:45:11","slug":"john-mcenroe-backs-emma-raducanu-decision-to-reverse-nonsensical-coaching-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/597605\/","title":{"rendered":"John McEnroe backs Emma Raducanu decision to reverse \u2018nonsensical\u2019 coaching call"},"content":{"rendered":"

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John McEnroe<\/a> has backed Emma Raducanu<\/a>\u2019s decision to rehire Andrew Richardson<\/a> after branding their original split \u201cnonsensical\u201d.<\/p>\n

Richardson was the coach in Raducanu\u2019s corner when she stunningly became the first qualifier<\/a> to win a grand slam title at the US Open<\/a> in 2021.<\/p>\n

But the British No 1 opted to dispense with his services immediately afterwards, feeling she needed someone with WTA Tour experience.<\/p>\n

A succession of short-term appointments<\/a> have followed but Raducanu has now decided to go back to Richardson, who she also worked with as a junior, with the pair linking up ahead of this week\u2019s tournament<\/a> in Strasbourg.<\/p>\n

Former world No 1 McEnroe, who will feature on TNT Sports\u2019 coverage of the French Open<\/a>, said: \u201cI was amazed that she got rid of the coach in the first place.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m like: \u2018Why the hell would you get rid of your coach a couple of weeks or a month after you won the US Open?\u2019 I never understood that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was surprised because athletes are very superstitious, you don\u2019t change the winning formula. You came from nowhere and you won this US Open the way she did, it would seem like it would be nonsensical to me to do what she did.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"EmmaEmma Raducanu won the 2021 US Open with Andrew Richardson as her coach (PA Media)<\/p>\n

Raducanu\u2019s attempts to rekindle those heady days in New York have been hindered by a succession of physical problems, the latest of which was a post-viral illness <\/a>that kept her away from the match court for two-and-a-half months.<\/p>\n

Defeat by France\u2019s Diane Parry in her opening contest in Strasbourg means she will go into the French Open, which begins on Sunday, with only one clay-court match under her belt. She will also be unseeded in Thursday\u2019s draw after slipping to 37th in the rankings.<\/p>\n

\"SheShe has now linked back up with Richardson (Getty)<\/p>\n

McEnroe would be surprised to see her make much of an impression in Paris but believes the reunion with Richardson could bear fruit at Wimbledon.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, grass would clearly be her more comfortable opportunity against the top players,\u201d said the American. \u201cI don\u2019t see her as nearly as comfortable on clay. I think that\u2019s her least-comfortable surface.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs it too little, too late? She\u2019s still young. I don\u2019t know physically where she\u2019s at, mentally \u2013 there\u2019s a lot of issues that I\u2019m not familiar enough with.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I would certainly think that the hope would be to have her, even though there\u2019s a lot more pressure on her in Wimbledon, that she would have a much better chance of doing something big there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":597606,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[40018,101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-597605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-file-photo","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/597606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}