Emma Raducanu may rely on ChatGPT to answer questions about art and history but when it came to reappointing Andrew Richardson as her coach, she seized the initiative.
It did not come about in the most orthodox fashion. Instead of calls with agents and contracts, Raducanu sent a leading “heyyy” text message to the coach who led her to US Open victory in 2021.
“After I had a break because I got sick, I wanted to come back in a really authentic way,” she explained.
After reaching out in April, Raducanu travelled to the Ferrer Academy in Spain, where Richardson has been working since 2022. She spent a few days practising on the clay before announcing their full-time partnership earlier this month.
She added: “We stayed in touch, but it was just a text and I was like ‘heyyy’. When you get a text from me with hey with three ‘y’s, just know something is cooking. It was one of those.”
If Richardson is counted twice on the list, Raducanu has accumulated 10 coaches in her career before the age of 23. But despite the latest move, she has no regrets about making the abrupt decision to split with Richardson just two weeks after making history five years ago.
“I think at that time it was very difficult to say I made a mistake, because in my life everything changed upside down, and I didn’t really think I had the most handle over the situation in the sense that I was being pulled left, right … I didn’t really know what was going on,” she said.
“I think everything also happened very quickly then. I think what it taught me was a lot of experiences over the last few years. It taught me what I didn’t want and it taught me that I really value having people that I trust and connect with around me. So it’s really nice to have that feeling back.”
Richardson, 52, was known during his playing days for the left-handed serve that he bashed down, using his 6ft 7in frame to achieve intimidating pace and bounce. He is certainly an imposing figure on the practice court, and fits in well with Raducanu, who is known to place greater trust in those she knew before she lifted the trophy at Flushing Meadows, like Nick Cavaday and Mark Petchey.
Raducanu receives regular feedback on the practice courts, even staying on after her allotted hour at Roland Garros on Thursday to try more serves, ahead of her first-round match against world No 64 Solana Sierra.
“I think he’s, on one hand, relatively soft-spoken, but he also has a very fiery side to him which I really enjoy and gets fired up and I really build off that too,” Raducanu said about Richardson’s coaching style.
Raducanu’s season has been severely affected by the after-effects of a virus she contracted in Cluj in February. She withdrew from three successive Masters 1000 events in Miami, Madrid and Rome as well as the Linz Open.
Although she believes the illness is behind her despite a slight lingering cough, the time away from court led to asking the internet and AI for answers to life’s questions.
“Every small thing I do it,” she admitted, adding that she asked ChatGPT to summarise the questions she had asked the AI platform on everything from history and art to random facts.
“It was giving me a rundown on my personality,” she said with a laugh. “It’s a little bit too accurate. So it was like [saying] very clear, very concise, no nonsense, straight to the question.”