Emma Raducanu is serious about her tennis – but it’s a big problem if she can’t get on the same page as Francisco Roig.
That is the opinion of former British No 1 Dan Evans, who admitted the optics of continually changing her trainers do not reflect well.
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The women’s British no. 1 only joined forces with Roig, who previously coached tennis legend and Spanish compatriot Rafael Nadal, in August.
However, Raducanu confirmed in a shock announcement on Wednesday that the partnership has ended after just five months.
It came mere days after the 23-year-old’s second-round exit at the Australian Open, which has left her on the hunt for her tenth coach.
“I don’t think it matters how many coaches she’s had,” Evans told talkSPORT Breakfast on Friday. “I think some of them have not been of the quality she needs.
“But I think the fact that she’s split with Francis Roig, who was basically Rafa’s right-hand man for any sort of technical work he needed, anything Rafa needed, he was the go-to man.
“I think that was a good appointment from Emma and her team, and to stop with him, and her comments after the Australian Open that they were obviously on different pages about how she wanted to play and how he wanted her to play…
“That’s the bigger thing, is that she’s not agreeing with somebody who’s as good a coach as him.
“I think that’s a big problem. Who can she go to next is the bigger thing rather than [the news that] she’s stopped with him.
“He’s a renowned coach, a world-class coach.
“I’ve actually been on court with him quite a bit myself when I was in Barcelona practising before a tournament, and he really does know the time of day. So that’s the worry.”
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Look at herself?
Roig was in the player’s box of 22-time Grand Slam winner Nadal for nearly 17 years before they parted in 2022.
He became the ninth person to hold the post as Raducanu’s coach at the 2025 Cincinnati Open, where she reached the third round.
Yet the writing was on the wall for their partnership when the Brit claimed she wanted to be ‘playing in a different way’ last week.
Asked whether Raducanu needed to look at herself closer after another split, Evans added: “I think she does take it on herself.
“There’s no doubt about that. But, there comes a point – Do you want to carry on? Do you want to get back to where she was, or is it all good where she is now?
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“She makes a great living. She’s got fame, she’s got whatever she wants, pretty much.
“But there has to be an extra bit of push to go, ‘Right, do I want to hear the ugly truths about my game? Do I want to work as hard as I did leading up to it?’
“And what I’ve seen, she works really hard. I’m not saying she doesn’t.
“But to sort of get rid of Roig, that doesn’t say too many good things that she’s looking to go forward, or she’s in a good place with her tennis. [That] would be my point.”
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“She takes a lot on herself,” Evans continued. “I think the public don’t realise she’s very hard into the sport.
“She works hard, and I think she’ll be the first to say she’s probably made a few bad decisions for her tennis, with her coaches, albeit, maybe the wrong coaches coming in and then having to get rid of them.
“There’s a lot of influences around really good superstars and people in their ears. Maybe she’s just starting to make her own decisions, and that could be a good thing.
“But there’s been a hell of a lot of coaches, and that doesn’t look that good for her. That is the truth, I would say.”
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Raducanu’s Australian Open heartbreak means that she’s still chasing her first title since her career-defining victory at the 2021 US Open.
Andrew Richardson was her coach during that Flushing Meadows triumph, but the pair split just weeks after her Grand Slam glory.
Raducanu, who burst on the scene earlier that year working with Nigel Sears, has since had mixed stints with Torben Beltz, Dmitry Tursunov, Sebastian Sachs, Vladimir Platenik and Mark Petchey.
Nick Cavaday held the job for the longest spell between 2024 and 2025, before stepping back in January last year due to health issues.
On the process involved in finding lucky number 10, Evans said: “The agents will get involved and start looking, and I think that’s one of the problems she needs to really want to go with one of the coaches.
“They did well, she and Roig; they were doing well. She was on a good path.”
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Raducanu’s ‘right up there with the best’
“I think that’s the biggest surprise when I read the news, was that she wasn’t doing badly,” Evans told talkSPORT Breakfast.
“One result at the start of the year, you can write that off pretty quickly. Just get back on the court and go again.
“Obviously, we don’t know the ins and outs. Roig may have been pushing for a bit more or a bit less.
“There are always two sides to every story, especially in the coaching side of things. She’s been playing good tennis.
“I was in Washington last year when she was over there. I think Roig had started by then, and she was playing great tennis.
“Hopefully she could get back on the way because she’s right up there with the best when she’s playing well.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
