"I haven't changed at all since I was 8, 9" - Emma Raducanu opens up about new coach Nick Cavaday & why it was important to make him part of her team
Emma Raducanu has been working with new coach Nick Cavaday since the start of the 2024 season, and it was the pair’s long-standing association that was key for the former pro being hired for the job.
Speaking to the media after her first-round win over Angelique Kerber at Stuttgart, Raducanu said Cavaday has known her from a very young age and thus was someone she could trust.
The 2021 US Open champion said her search for a coach continued for a while because she wanted to get someone who knew her from before she broke onto the scene with her title run in New York.
"Yeah, I feel very comfortable working with him," Emma Raducanu said. "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," she added.
Raducanu said that while things have changed around her massively since the US Open, mentally, she remained the same person that she was at the age of eight or nine.
"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," the Briton said.
"It's a nice feeling," she continued. "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."
"It's starting to show" - Emma Raducanu on doing 'great work' with new coach Nick Cavaday
Emma Raducanu said she has been doing great work with coach Nick Cavaday off-court, adding that it has already begun to translate onto the court.
“But yeah, we have obviously been doing great work this year,” Emma Raducanu said. “And it's starting to show.”
The Briton said the build-up has been gradual, but she feels big results will begin to flow when all things come together.
“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,” she added.
Having beaten Angelique Kerber in the first round at Stuttgart, Raducanu will now take on Linda Noskova for a spot in the quarterfinals.