Emma Raducanu has officially announced that Francis Roig will be her full-time coach going forward.
Raducanu had been working with Mark Petchey, who helped her produce some of her best results since winning the US Open in 2021.
While Petchey will still be in contact with Raducanu, his media commitments do not enable him to travel on the WTA Tour full time.
Instead, Raducanu’s main coach will be Francis Roig, who worked with Rafael Nadal for 17 years.
Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty ImagesWhat Rafael Nadal said about Francis Roig after parting ways in 2022
Roig had worked with Nadal as an assistant coach to both Toni Nadal and Carlos Moya between 2005 and 2022.
Their run together officially concluded at the end of the 2022 season, but Nadal had nothing other than positive things to say about Roig after announcing they were parting ways.
Nadal also suggested that the reason behind the departure from his team was due to Roig wanting to partake in new ventures into coaching.
“I want to inform you that Francis Roig is leaving my team and starting a new personal project as a coach,” Nadal said on social media at the time.
“He started joining the team and worked with us together with my Uncle Toni and later with Carlos Moyá and recently Marc López. Francis has been an important person in my career and I am very grateful to him for all these years of work and friendship.
“When we started working together I was a child and together with my Uncle Toni, we started on the circuit. Francis is a great coach who knows tennis very well and has helped me a lot to get better and better. I only have words of gratitude and I wish him all the luck in the world in his new project!”
Os quería comunicar que Francis Roig deja el equipo. Francis ha sido una persona importante en mi carrera y le estoy muy agradecido por todos estos años de trabajo y amistad. Cuando empezamos a trabajar juntos yo era un niño y junto a mi tío Toni, empezábamos en el circuito. pic.twitter.com/qeW0wFQTpa
— Rafa Nadal (@RafaelNadal) December 16, 2022
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Francis Roig’s career highlights as a coach
Roig is a very decorated coach, and was working with Nadal for all of his Grand Slam title victories.
Although he was never the main coach of Nadal, the only title that he ever won without Roig was his first in Sopot in 2004.
After Roig left Nadal’s team to take on new coaching endeavours, he went on to work with former Wimbledon finalist Matteo Berrettini.
They were unable to find any success at the major tournaments, but Roig did help Berrettini win three clay court titles in their short tenure together before parting ways at the end of the 2024 season.
Francis Roig CoachingRafael Nadal (2005-2022)Matteo Berrettini (2023-2024)Titles913Best Grand Slam ResultWon 22 titlesSecond Round (Wimbledon and US Open 2024)
Roig will now make his first venture into the WTA Tour with Raducanu, who is seeking a seeded spot at the US Open.
Their first tournament together will be at the Cincinnati Open, which gets underway on Thursday, August 7.