Emma Raducanu’s new coach will be Angelique Kerber’s longtime mentor Torben Beltz. The US Open champion has been searching for a coach to guide her through her first full season on the WTA Tour next year since deciding not to extend a short-term partnership with Andrew Richardson after her stunning New York triumph.
That was a surprise to many but Raducanu highlighted the need to have someone experienced in the women’s game and she will certainly have that in the 44-year-old German.
The Spaniard Esteban Carril was the only name that emerged publicly from a series of trials Raducanu held with coaches last month but, as first reported by the Daily Telegraph, a picture of Raducanu with Beltz and her agent, Christopher Helliar, at a cafe in Orpington was posted on an Instagram fan page.
Beltz was Kerber’s coach for a decade from her first steps on the professional tour, helping her reach the top 10 before they split for the first time in 2013. It was not long before they were reunited and Beltz was by Kerber’s side for the best campaign of her career in 2016, when she won the Australian Open and US Open, reached the Wimbledon final, claimed an Olympic silver medal and became world No 1.
They split again at the end of 2017, with Kerber hiring Wim Fissette and winning a first Wimbledon title the following year, while Beltz began working with Croatian Donna Vekic and helped her break into the top 20 for the first time. That association ended somewhat acrimoniously last summer, with Beltz returning to work alongside Kerber for a third time.
The German’s career appeared to be on the wane but she has been resurgent this year, reaching the Wimbledon semi-finals and briefly returning to the top 10. The 33-year-old revealed on Monday that she has again parted ways with Beltz.
Raducanu gave a cryptic update on her coaching search on Sunday, saying: “I’m in a very good position. It’s just a bit confidential. It’s my decision. It’s not fully done.”
She is again coaching herself at this week’s Upper Austria Ladies Linz, where she is the top seed and will play the Chinese qualifier Wang Xinyu in her first match on Tuesday evening.
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Kerber has described Beltz as “the most positive person I know” and he is known as a compassionate and likable presence on the WTA Tour, someone who will put an arm around his player rather than a hard taskmaster. He also puts a lot of emphasis on physical work, which the British No 1 has highlighted as the key area she needs to improve.
