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00:00And then we'll have Novak Djokovic against Yannick Sinner.
00:02But we woke up here in Melbourne to the news that Emma Raducanu has split with her coach Francisco Roig.
00:08It means Raducanu is now looking for the 10th coach of her career.
00:13Now this is what she said to Russell after her second round defeat here.
00:18Do you and Francis Roig still see things the same way and do you still think it's a partnership that can endure?
00:23Yeah, I think, I mean, today I don't play how I want to play because I wasn't hitting any shot particularly well.
00:31It's tough to take an assessment after a match like today where I feel like it's more just, you know, you're completely off.
00:38But me and Francis have done some amazing work together in the last few months and I've improved so many different aspects of my game.
00:45And then we were very just inhibited with what we could do before Australia and our preparation.
00:50So I think it's difficult to kind of say that we don't agree.
00:56Russell, it seemed like a very friendly parting post on social media.
01:01Yes, I was struck by that because that hasn't always been the case when these partnerships have come to an end.
01:06But he got a very glossy post on Instagram and the words that Emma Raducanu used were very warm.
01:13She said he's been more than a coach to her.
01:15That while they've come to the conclusion together that we ought not to move forward, she is grateful for all he has taught her.
01:21And there was a picture of them on the golf course.
01:23They'd been laughing and she was smiling.
01:25So that was at least something.
01:27I mean, it's not much of a consolation, I suppose.
01:30But at least publicly they have parted on more amicable terms.
01:34No one's surprised.
01:37The reason I asked that question of her in the BBC interview that followed the news conference was that she had said in the conference quite clearly she's not playing the way she wants to be playing.
01:46And she used the word misalignment.
01:48Her and Francisco Roig at some point at the start of this year, maybe in preseason, suddenly started to see it differently.
01:55She said,
01:55I'm not playing right now the way I want to be playing.
01:59I want to hit the ball to the corners and hard.
02:01I feel like I'm doing all this variety.
02:03I'm not doing what I need to do.
02:05So when the news came and we were all expecting it ahead of her appearance on the WTA tour in Cluj in Romania next week, it was no surprise to anyone.
02:15She didn't, Annabelle, in recent times, and I know we've said this before, look like she was enjoying her tennis.
02:21And those comments to Rosalind and in her press conference, she was talking about the forehand.
02:24And I remember her sort of snapping, saying, no, it shouldn't be doing this.
02:27This isn't the shot it's meant to be doing.
02:28And I'm going to stop doing it like this.
02:31It did feel that something wasn't quite right.
02:33Yeah, I agree with you.
02:34I think even the matches that I commentated on or I was covering last year at the back end of last year, she was losing a lot of three setters, but quite convincingly in those final sets.
02:46And same, you know, for this year has been quite convincing losses, really, unexpected losses.
02:51I think losses that would show that you were actually going backwards, not forwards.
02:55And I don't think she has been particularly enjoying.
02:57No one likes to lose anyway, but I think she's an utter perfectionist.
03:00And I think she stresses over all of her techniques all the time.
03:05And I think she actually must be.
03:07I don't know.
03:08I haven't been on the coaching call with her, but it strikes me that she is very demanding of her coaches and is expecting some analysis every single time she misses a ball.
03:20You know, it's almost like, well, what did I do wrong there?
03:22Or, you know, did I not put enough spin on it?
03:25Or did I not hit through it?
03:26Or did I not have enough leg bend or whatever?
03:29So, oh, a knee bend.
03:30So, I think I almost feel like she's overcomplicating absolutely every aspect of what she's doing.
03:36And I feel like you just want to say to her, look, just, you know, some people do miss the ball every now and then.
03:41Just don't be so hard on yourself and just go out there and play.
03:43Go out there and enjoy it and start playing like a chess player rather than just fretting over every single shot that she hits.
03:51But I don't know.
03:51It's almost starting to become, how many coaches are that now?
03:5510?
03:5511?
03:55Well, it's 10 if you include Vladimir Platinic.
03:59Okay.
03:59Who was working with her on a very short trial basis.
04:02But that's still somebody who's been appointed.
04:04I'm not sure you can count people on a trial basis.
04:07He'd never been appointed.
04:08Yeah.
04:09And Mark Petsch is also one of them.
04:10But actually, if it's 9 or 10.
04:12Okay.
04:12Well, it's a lot.
04:13It doesn't really change the fundamental point that she changes coaches very, very regularly.
04:16It's a heck of a lot of coaches.
04:18And I think it's starting to look like she might be uncoachable.
04:21And there are other players on the tour who end up going, you know what, I just want to go it alone.
04:25Just do it my way and feel more kind.
04:27I think Kyrgios went through that period of time, didn't he, for a while, where you sort of thought, gosh, you actually are uncoachable and you're better off on your...
04:34I think, didn't Gail Monfils go through a period of time without a coach?
04:37Quite a while, yeah.
04:38Yeah.
04:38And I sometimes think, look, maybe that's what she needs, just to go and do it on her own.
04:42Because I think she knows how to play tennis.
04:44And she knows she's won a slam.
04:46She knows how to fight her way through matches.
04:49And I think maybe it's all just got a bit too complicated.
04:51What do you think, Pat?
04:51Well, I don't really know.
04:55I mean, it's a mystery to me.
04:58But I think Annabelle makes some very valid points.
05:01Sometimes you just, there's too much information.
05:04You've got to try and work it out yourself.
05:06Or you try and find somebody who's aligned with you.
05:08And you keep trying.
05:09And, yeah, it's hard to know.
05:13I know she works hard.
05:14She didn't have the ideal preparation coming into the Australian season.
05:18You know, I think, you know, the question would be, is she giving it a fair shot with somebody?
05:25You know, it seemed to be coming and going so quickly that, you know, she's got more coaches than Chelsea have had managers.
05:33You know, and sometimes you've just got to...
05:34Well, that's a close run thing.
05:36That's, you know, and guess what?
05:38With Chelsea, you know, there is, the best players in the world have a steady coaching system when they tweak it a little bit from time to time.
05:48You know, Federer had it for a long time.
05:49And, okay, he added a couple of people.
05:51Nadal, you know, Djokovic had that stint.
05:54And then, you know, added Gorin in for a bunch of years.
05:57And, yeah, tweak it a little bit here and there, of course.
05:59You need some more information to get better and get better.
06:02But it's very hard to get better when you don't give it a full shot.
06:06I'm not saying that was the case.
06:08I just know that that's the reality of it.
06:11You know, somebody came to me and said, you know, have a look at my shots.
06:13And I'd say, okay, you need to do this and this, this.
06:16And it's going to take you six months.
06:17Oh, I haven't got six months.
06:18Sorry, you're fired.
06:19I guess somebody is going to tell me it's going to be three months.
06:22You know, and we tend to sometimes, we want the instant answer.
06:27You go to three different doctors and they'll go, oh, yeah, I can fix this in a week.
06:31Okay.
06:31But, you know, it's not done.
06:35Physios and trainers are typically like that.
06:37So, you know, this is going to take time and you've got to really work it and you've got to do this.
06:41You're not prepared to do that.
06:42I just want to hear what I want to hear.
06:45I'm not saying this is the case because I don't know.
06:47But I'm just saying in general, that's what players and coaches in these modern era tend to be.
06:53So here's a question for both of you.
06:56Raducanu is 23.
06:57She's a Grand Slam champion.
06:58When she starts working with a coach, who should be deciding the direction and the style of play?
07:04Is it down to her to say, this is how I want to play.
07:08Please show me how I can improve.
07:10Or is she throwing it to the coach and asking them to come up with the best way for her to maximize her potential?
07:17I think it's a bit of both.
07:18I think if there is some glaring technical things, they're not really glaring for her.
07:24There's some things that she needs to work on.
07:27I think if technique breaks down, the game will break down and she'll lose.
07:32So, you know, for instance, you could say, you know, I want you to hit that forehand flat across court, you know, five times.
07:39But if you don't have the technique to be able to do that, then you've got to go back and work on that technique.
07:44If it's a tactical thing, that can be worked out as well and that's a different solution.
07:51So it's, you know, you have to really individually look at what you can as a coach do.
07:59And often people say, who would you like, who would the person you'd love to coach?
08:02I'd say, well, Carlos Alcaraz has got to just sit back and have a glass of wine.
08:06You know, what do you do with that guy?
08:07He's just got about everything, you know.
08:09But is that challenging?
08:10No, not for me.
08:11I like to work with players who've got things they can work on.
08:16And that's the exciting thing.
08:18And if you have something, a shot that you can fix, then all of a sudden that adds another element to your game that you can throw in there.
08:25And, you know, a big kick serve, for instance.
08:28She had a big kick serve.
08:30I'm sort of talking around the subject a bit.
08:33But you want to, as a player, you want to have a clear idea of how I like to play.
08:38And then you've got to be able to build on that technically and tactically and, of course, hard work on the court to be able to do that.
08:45It feels like a bit of a chicken and egg situation in terms of she's spoken in the past about having a coach and taking something and then moving.
08:52So taking the best bits and moving on.
08:54But then people have said she looks a little bit lost on the court.
08:58And the example here was the forehand.
09:00She said a number of different coaches recently making changes on the forehand.
09:04So she's moving the coaches to take the best bits.
09:06But surely you need the consistency.
09:09If you're working on a shot, you need that consistency.
09:12Otherwise, it could get confusing.
09:14100%.
09:14Yeah.
09:15Too many cooks spoil the broth.
09:18I think that's probably in her case.
09:21I mean, what does she really want to, how does she really want to play?
09:24So she's, I think she's leading that in saying, you know, I want to be able to do this.
09:30And she hasn't aligned with Roy here on certain shots.
09:34She's like, you know, no, that's not the way I want to hit the forehand.
09:37You know, and then it's like, okay, we agree to disagree and thank you very much and good luck in the future.
09:42And that's probably where it's got to.
09:44I'm just guessing.
09:45I don't really know because I haven't been involved in the conversation.
09:48It did look genuinely quite promising at the end of last season.
09:51Yeah, I thought so too.
09:51I thought that's not a bad idea.
09:52They only played, they're only together for a handful of tournaments from Cincinnati in August.
09:56But the agreement to work together for another year was quite surprising because that hasn't happened a great deal as we've been saying.
10:03But that seemed like an encouraging development.
10:05And then the tension and the friction seemed to start around about the United Cup time.
10:10What is his history?
10:12Rafa.
10:13Rafa Nadal.
10:14Right.
10:14And Sloane Stephens briefly.
10:17Okay, so one of the greatest players in the world who could just pretty much do everything.
10:22Yeah.
10:22Yeah.
10:23And that's about it.
10:24Okay.
10:25So it's a bit like me coaching Alcaraz.
10:26What do you do?
10:27Okay, well, you can work on a few things, but wow.
10:30I hit that forehand there.
10:31Rafa can do it.
10:32Great.
10:32Okay.
10:33Well, I'm the one to coach.
10:34Yeah.
10:35I think when I used to watch him on the practice court with Rafa Nadal, I used to see them having
10:40very detailed discussions about the swing path on the forehand.
10:44And, you know, he always seemed to be the one that was very technical.
10:47And, you know, Nadal would go back and certainly when the off seasons or if there were times
10:52when Uncle Tony couldn't be there or Carlos Moyer, then it was always Francisco Roig.
10:57But as I said, every time I watched the practice session, it seemed like a lot of technical
11:01tuition was going in.
11:02And I felt like that was the kind of coach that he is, that he really, really backs himself
11:06with the techniques and everything.
11:07But I think, like I said just now, you know, when I watched Raducanu at the end of last
11:12year, there were a lot of three-set losses.
11:15And they were very, very one-sided scorelines in those final sets where physically she looked
11:20like she was really hampered at the end.
11:23I don't know whether she was injured or what was going on, but they were back-to-back.
11:26And those kind of losses really eat into your confidence, don't they?
11:30But also, if you're injured, you can't get out on the practice court and do the work.
11:34So, you know, he might be going, look, this is, you know, this is how I think you should
11:39do it.
11:39And you haven't been able to do that.
11:41And if you're not willing to give it a shot, you know, stick with it for another three months,
11:45which I think you should do.
11:47Again, I'm just guessing.
11:49I'm guessing.
11:49I'm speculating.
11:51But, you know, if she hasn't been able to get on the court and have a go at that,
11:55and fix it, or she's not willing to, you know, stick with it, then that's, you know,
12:03that's her decision and their decision to sort of go, okay, well, look, you know, try something else.
12:07And that's what most of the coaches do.
12:09Look, well done.
12:10Go and try somebody else.
12:11And I've been in that situation before.
12:13Look, you know, we disagree on stuff, but this is what I believe it.
12:17But you're clearly not convinced.
12:19So, you know, good luck.
12:21You know, I don't have a problem with that.
12:22I'd say go try somebody else, somebody else's idea.
12:26I think the other factor on the tour is that you need to pick people who you actually get on with
12:32and enjoy spending a lot of time with.
12:34And it has to become like family on the tour and have to live your life around those people.
12:39It's not about just choosing somebody that, you know, you're just going to be coached by
12:44and then that's it.
12:45You know, there's going to be things that sort of rear their head.
12:47It's like when you go on holiday with friends and suddenly all their habits start to irritate you.
12:52But, you know, it is more about picking a family around you with your team that you can sustain,
12:59as you just said, Pat.
13:01And, you know, I don't know what's going on with who she's been choosing all the time,
13:06but it just doesn't last very long.
13:07And I wonder whether there's just irritations that rear up while they're out there on the tour
13:11because it's very possible that that's going to happen.
13:13Also, agents, parents, all sorts of people get involved in this sort of stuff.
13:18Oh, you know, you should move on.
13:19You should do this.
13:21Again, it's, it may not, this is just tennis in general.
13:24You know, there's people in your ear all the time.
13:27I mean, how's Alcaraz Fiery's coach who got him to number one and won two Grand Slams?
13:31You know, it's like something's happened there.
13:33And Juan Carlos was clearly completely stumped about that.
13:39You know, and so somebody's got in Carlos's ear.
13:43And certainly in the case of Emma Raducanu,
13:45we know her dad was quite heavily involved at the start,
13:47as you'd expect, because she was only 18 when she won the US Open.
13:50We also know because I and a few other journalists spoke to Vladimir Platonic
13:54after that very short trial came to an end.
13:57He said that all the contact had been through in Raducanu.
14:01So that is definitely another part of the story.
14:04I think, though, also, Emma Raducanu makes a lot of decisions herself.
14:09She's a chip off the old block in many, many ways.
14:11I think she sees things quite similarly to her dad.
14:13And it's not, I don't think it's ever as simple as, like,
14:16dad's making all the calls.
14:17I don't buy that, but he clearly still has quite a lot of influence at certain times.
14:21Yeah, one of the concern...
14:23Oh, my God, I'm blank. I'm getting too old.
14:27I can't live anywhere in his name.
14:29Agassi?
14:30I'm going to...
14:30The coach, the Russian coach he had for us...
14:32Dmitry Tursonov.
14:33Tursonov.
14:34Tursonov, my goodness.
14:35Oh, I'd forgotten about that once.
14:36Yes, God.
14:38John's a long time ago.
14:39We've gone blank.
14:39I've gone blank.
14:40But I talked to him about this.
14:42I was thinking about him the other day.
14:43And he just said, too many red flags for me.
14:45Would you like the order?
14:46Nigel Sears, Andrew Richardson, Jeremy Bates, Torben Beltz,
14:50Dmitry Tursonov, Sebastian Sachs, Nick Cavaday,
14:53we'll pull it...
14:53Vlado in there, Platonic, Mark Petchy, and Francisco Roig.
14:57But if you...
14:58I imagine, Pat, if you're a coach,
15:01is it that kind of...
15:02Is it...
15:02Would it be an appealing, exciting challenge
15:04because you think you could be the one
15:06to either last or make the changes
15:09or get another ground sometime?
15:10I don't know.
15:10As a coach, do you run from this situation
15:13or do you run towards this situation?
15:15I think Nigel Sears, that was a shock when he went
15:21because he had spent many years training her.
15:25I think it was the best part of about three years
15:26when she was down in Bromley.
15:29And, you know, he did a lot of travelling to work with her.
15:31He did a lot of great work.
15:33She was very unknown at that stage
15:35and she broke through that very first Wimbledon
15:37and got to the fourth round.
15:39And I thought he did an amazing job.
15:41And then, lo and behold,
15:42he got fired on this Sunday of Wimbledon.
15:44And I think it was such a shock.
15:46And, you know, he knows her better than anybody,
15:50her game and from the beginning.
15:52And I think she would do well to give him a call again.
15:56God, it's a tough one, isn't it?
15:57It is a tough one.
15:58There will be many discussions about it,
16:00many articles written.
16:02There will also be many articles written
16:04about what we saw this afternoon.
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