Emma Raducanu spoke extremely highly about her current coach in Stuttgart as the 21-year-old Briton reveals she feels “very comfortable” with coach Nick Cavaday because she has known him from childhood and just has that feeling that his intentions are good and that she can fully trust him.
After changing five different coaches in her first two years, many were curious to see who would Raducanu pick as her new coach for the 2024 season. While many expected it to be a star coach, Raducanu went completely different as she hired Cavaday, a coach who worked with her during her childhood and junior days.
Four and a half months into her post-surgery comeback, Raducanu is continually showing signs of progress and improvement in her game. When addressing that in a Stuttgart press conference, the 2021 US Open champion gave big credit to coach Cavaday and also explained why their partnership has been going so strong so far.
“I feel very comfortable working with him. I have known him since I was a young age, so he’s someone who I feel like I can trust, and that’s a big thing for me, I think. Just having people who I know before, I would say, I got famous or I got any of the big, you know, whatever coming my way, it was just good to have someone who’s known me before that,” Raducanu said.
“So you know that their intentions are good, and they didn’t just come and, you know, after the win and when everything is easy to just come and join.
“It’s a nice feeling. And also, I feel like he’s known me since a young age. He knows pretty well how I operate. I would say I haven’t changed at all since I was like 8, 9. But everything around me has changed, but it’s mentally I feel like I’m the exact same person (smiling).
“But yeah, we have obviously been doing great work this year, and it’s starting to show, but the training weeks we have been doing since the start, it’s just been slowly building and building. Whenever it all comes together, I think, like, big things will happen.”
Emma Raducanu and Nick Cavaday © Getty Images Sport – Julian Finney
Raducanu on how she feels about her game now
During the 2022 and 2023 seasons, there just wasn’t much consistency in Raducanu’s game but that was mainly because she was often injured and unable to fully practice or give her absolute best every time. But since returning to action fully healthy at the start of the 2024 season, Raducanu has been more consistent with her game and has had some very bright moments. Last week, Raducanu won two marathon matches to lead Great Britain to an away win over France and the Billie Jean King Cup Finals.
After crushing former world No. 1 Kerber, Raducanu detailed the positive stuff she has been seeing in her game recently.
“I am playing some really good tennis. I feel like I’m a lot more dominant in my service games. I feel like I’m playing level-wise, I knew it before I went to Fed Cup even, like, training, I was playing really well. I think everyone that I was practicing with can attest to that too,” Raducanu said.
“Yeah, it is, I think it’s a combination of doing actual good practice weeks, doing the right things. I’m really enjoying working with Nick, my coach. It’s great to have a familiar face, but I also think we’re just working really well together as a team.”
Emma Raducanu © Getty Images Sport – Aurelien Meunier
Raducanu was absolutely outstanding against Kerber
Although 36-year-old Kerber is still early in her post-pregnancy comeback, she is still one of the most respected players on the Tour and no one really expected that Raducanu would have an easy job against the German. But Raducanu absolutely dominated Kerber and sealed a win with a total of three lost games. Also, Raducanu had 26 winners against 11 unforced errors.
When the match started, Raducanu broke Kerber in the first game but got broken back in the following game. However, blowing an early break didn’t impact Raducanu, who still easily won the opener after breaking Kerber again in the third and seventh games.
At the start of the second set, pretty much the same scenario happened – through the first three games, three breaks and Raducanu leading 2-1. Raducanu then served out the fourth game for a 3-1 lead and claimed two more breaks in the fifth and seventh games to complete a straight-set win over Kerber.
Emma Raducanu © Getty Images Sport – Aurelien Meunier
Later in her press, Raducanu revealed she came to Stuttgart feeling tired and exhausted after a very demanding BJK Cup weekend. That only made Raducanu’s win over Kerber even more impressive.
On Thursday, Raducanu returned to the court and clinched another highly impressive win, this time crushing Linda Noskova 6-0 7-5 to set up a quarterfinal against Iga Swiatek.
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