Emma Raducanu's former coach lifts lid on reasons behind split from British star

Emma Raducanu's former coach has revealed he split with the former US Open champion because he feared he would not be given enough time to work with her.

Russian Dmitry Tursunov said: “We didn’t agree on the terms and there were some red flags that just couldn’t be ignored.”

The British No.1 is looking for her fifth new coach in 16 months after Tursunov ended their working relationship earlier this month. The former world No.20 has already teamed up with Olympic champion Belinda Bencic.

But Tursunov told TennisMajors.com : “I was walking away from Emma regardless of whether there was another [player] available or not.

“Our trial period was over at the US Open but I stuck around, trying to see if there was going to be a way to impress the team. I really wanted to make it work.”

“In my opinion, she’s minimum a one-year project but I would say that she’s probably a two-and-a-half-year project to be on the safe side. Of course, it’s hard to say that and it’s hard for people to understand how it is possible because she already won the US Open.

"But, in my opinion, her game is very raw, and I think in many ways it could use a lot of improvement. It’s going to take some time, but as I said to her and to pretty much everyone on her team: I think you just need to have one voice and just try that for a bit.

"As a coach, you want to have a belief that you’re going to be at work for that period. But of course, with her coaching situation, there’s now a thought going through every coach’s mind… So I was really hoping to find a solution to continue, which is why I stayed for a few weeks past the trial period. But in the end, we just couldn’t agree on the terms so I had to leave, and Belinda had nothing to do with that.”

Great Britain's Emma Raducanu (Dave Shopland/REX/Shutterstock)

But Tursunov was full of praise for world No.76 Raducanu. “She’s absolutely great, she’s a hard worker and she doesn’t think or act like she’s a superstar.,” he said.

“So I really loved working with her, and I really wanted to make it work. It was a very difficult decision for me to walk away from a player that I like and respect.”