Emma Raducanu has finally found a permanent coach by teaming up with her childhood mentor Nick Cavaday just in time for the upcoming Australian Open.
The winner of the 2021 US Open, who qualified for the main tournament at the Australian Open due to several players pulling out, was unable to play since April due to surgeries on their wrists and ankle.
Last June, she declared that she was ending her working relationship with Sebastian Sachs. Sachs was just one of the many coaches who have quickly come and gone from Raducanu’s inner circle within a short period of time. Nigel Sears, Andrew Richardson, Torben Beltz, and Dmitry Tursunov have all had short periods of time working with the British player since her breakthrough at Wimbledon in 2021.
Reworded: Prior to Tuesday’s charity match against Naomi Osaka, Cavaday, the former head coach of the LTA’s Loughborough Academy until April 2020, has started collaborating with Raducanu in Melbourne.
“I have been acquainted with Nick since I was 10 years old, and he recently assisted me at the NTC (National Tennis Centre). Prior to that, the LTA provided me with a great deal of support,” Raducanu stated while competing at the WTA Tour in Auckland last week.
Jack Draper secured his spot in the last 16 of the Adelaide International after defeating Sebastian Baez in his first win of the season. The match lasted less than 80 minutes, with Draper taking a commanding 6-1, 6-3 win over his Argentinian opponent. He hit a total of 17 winners in the match.
The 22-year-old player, who made his first appearance in a tour-level final in Sofia last November, will now compete against either Miomir Kecmanovic or Mackenzie McDonald for a spot in the quarter-finals.
Draper expressed satisfaction with his performance today, considering the challenge of being the first match of the year. Having played at this event last year, he is determined to push himself as far as possible this week. He currently feels physically and mentally prepared for the competition.
Katie Boulter, the top-ranked female tennis player from Britain, was not able to advance further in the tournament after being defeated by Ana Bogdan in the round of 32. Boulter lost with a score of 6-3, 6-4, despite initially leading in the second set. However, her opponent from Romania won four consecutive games to secure the win.
In the first round of the tournament, qualifiers Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Anna Kalinskaya caused surprises by defeating seeded opponents.
During the first match on the centre court of the Australian Open warm-up event, Pavlyuchenkova, a finalist in the French Open, defeated fifth seed Beatriz Haddad Maia with a score of 6-3, 6-4. In another match, Kalinskaya battled for almost three hours before ultimately beating fourth seed Barbora Krejcikova 7-5, 3-6, 7-5.
Source: theguardian.com
