Emma Raducanu appoints Sebastian Sachs as her new coach… with the former US Open champion hoping the German can inspire her to more success after he led Belinda Bencic to Olympic gold
- Emma Raducanu is set to tackle the new season with coach Sebastian Sachs
- The newly appointed German helped Belinda Bencic win Olympic gold last year
- He will step into the hot seat after what has effectively been a swap with Bencic
- Her coaching has been taken over by Dmitry Tursunov, who was with Raducanu
Emma Raducanu is set to tackle the new season with a new coach in German Sebastian Sachs, who helped Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic win the Olympic gold medal last year.
The former US Open champion is due to play an exhibition match in Abu Dhabi this afternoon against Wimbledon finalist Ons Jabeur, with the 30 year-old from Stuttgart sitting courtside.
He will step into the hot seat after what has effectively been a swap with Bencic, whose coaching has been taken over by Russian Dmitry Tursunov, who was with Raducanu until early October this year.
Emma Raducanu is set to tackle the new tennis season with a new coach in Sebastian Sachs
The German helped Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic (above) win an Olympic gold medal last year
After signs of some promise in their partnership Tursunov left on his own volition, having failed to agree on a long-term deal with the British number one, who turned 20 last month.
Since then she has spent a lot of the time recovering from a wrist injury and doing concentrated physical training in a bid to avoid the repeat injuries that have hampered her in 2022.
Sachs had a brief playing career which saw him fail to make it beyond the basic Futures level, but for someone relatively young has amassed plenty of coaching experience since then.
He worked on the team of former world number one Victoria Azarenka, and then coached Germany’s Julia Goerges, who he helped reach the world’s top ten.
Raducanu’s former coach Dmitry Tursunov is joining up with Bencic in an effective swap
Raducanu, who has been through several coaches, wants to build on her 2021 US Open victory
After that he worked with Bencic, and was in charge when she won gold in the delayed Tokyo games. He was also there when Raducanu upset the Swiss in the quarter finals at Flushing Meadows en route to the title, a year last September.
With a reputation for thorough preparation, he is said to have impressed the player in their brief trial so far and quickly struck up a strong rapport.
Now that the US Open is very much in the rear-view mirror, and after trying to work with an array of coaches such as Tursunov and another German in Torben Beltz, this is a crucial appointment that needs to work.
Having shown her potential, Raducanu requires a more stable set-up to translate that into consistent results. She will hopefully be aided by a more resilient body that has had more of a chance to catch up with the physical rigours of the tour.
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