Emma Raducanu’s ex-coach left her due to ‘red flags that couldn’t be ignored’

Emma Raducanu's former coach Dmitry Tursunov has revealed that he left her service due to a number of "red flags" that he could not ignore.

It means the former US Open champion is on the lookout for a fifth coach in just 18 months and the Russian coach has since joined up with Swiss world number 13 Belinda Bencic. The 39-year-old admitted that he wanted to work with someone ready to win top prizes now – something he could not guarantee with Raducanu.

“I was walking away from Emma regardless of whether there was another [player] available or not,” said the 39-year-old. “We didn’t agree on the terms and there were some red flags that just couldn’t be ignored.

READ MORE: Emma Raducanu fast becoming the 'Watford of tennis'

“She’s extremely talented, she’s very athletic, and very coordinated so she can get away with some things that other players can’t.

“The ingredients are very good, but you can still mess it up. So I felt it was going to be an interesting project, but a very long-term project, and as a coach, you want to have a belief that you’re going to be at work for that period…

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“I could have stuck around, I could have agreed on everything that her team proposed. But, deep down, I felt like that wasn’t the right thing to do.

“As difficult of a decision to walk away as it was, because I’ve never really walked away from a player, I felt like that was the right decision.

“Emotionally, I wanted to stay, but logically, I felt like I needed to leave. I felt like there were going to be problems later and I wanted to avoid them for my own peace of mind.”

Raducanu, who was keen to carry on working with Tursunov, has experienced further disappointment after being forced to end her season early through injury. The 19-year-old, who has been plagued by injury troubles, has had to pull out of the Billie Jean King Cup after a problem with her right wrist.

It is the same injury that has been bothering her for a few months now and she now plans on returning to action at an exhibition event in Abu Dhabi in December.

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