The weeks are ticking down until Emma Raducanu makes her French Open debut, with the Briton braced to make that bow without a coach as things stand.
However, the prospect of entering a Grand Slam without a mentor figure in place doesn't daunt the youngster who unexpectedly powered to US Open glory last year. In fact, Raducanu has said she's in no rush to find a new coach after splitting from Torben Beltz earlier this week.
For the third time in less than a year, the 19-year-old announced she was on the lookout for a new trainer after cutting ties with the German. Less than a month remains before Roland Garros gets underway on May 22, but Raducanu appears perfectly at ease in her own care.
"To be honest, no, I am very comfortable with how I am training right now," she told reporters after being quizzed on whether it would concern her to head into a major tournament without a coach. "I feel like I don’t really need a conventional just-this-title ‘Emma Raducanu’s coach’.
"I feel like growing up, I have always been very responsive to the situation and it has not always been straightforward. I am not necessarily stressing or panicking to find a new coach. From a young age, I haven’t necessarily always had a coach and when I was training alone growing up, I had to learn to be my own coach. I feel something that I am pretty good at is actually understanding the game, studying it."
It's that same brand of inner belief that will have undoubtedly played a crucial role in Raducanu's romp to her maiden major at Flushing Meadows. The French Open is an altogether more daunting experience, however, considering she only made her competitive clay court debut earlier in April.
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The teenager went on to say a coach's experience is of course "very valuable at certain times." However, it's her experience that she tends to 'already know the answers' to the question she asks, posing the question as to whether more self-belief could be a more simple solution.
Raducanu continued: "I feel like with me, I always love learning and I love to hear new ideas and whether I use all of them or not, that's my own call at the end of the day, but I love to get a taste for all the different ideas that are out there and different models."
Riccardo Piatti—who formerly worked with Maria Sharapova and Novak Djokovic —was touted as the frontrunner to replace Beltz after working with Raducanu this week. For the time being, at least, she'll continue to train with the LTA 's head of women's coaching, Iain Bates, as she prepares for her Madrid Open debut against Tereza Martincova on Friday.
