Emma Raducanu has rejoined coach Andrew Richardson, the “quietly brutal” instructor she knew from childhood and who helped mastermind her 2021 US Open breakthrough. His return comes after a five-year spell that included seven coaches and ended with Richardson
Emma Raducanu didn’t need a long explanation to bring Andrew Richardson back into her orbit.
The text message came in April of this year. and the former US Open miracle coach—known within tennis as “Flex” for his enormous. long-limbed frame—returned to the spotlight after stepping behind the scenes for years. This time, he wasn’t being hired as a new voice to “fix” anything from scratch. Raducanu was doing something rarer in elite sport: going back to an old standard.
Richardson’s path to the Raducanu story started in a place far removed from Grand Slam lights. In 2016, he was applying for a coaching job at Culford School in Bury St Edmunds, a £32,000-a-year institution. During his interview, he ran a session with one of the school’s top youngsters. Culford’s assistant head Dave Watkin remembers the drill vividly: if a player hit the ball into the net. they had to run. get the ball and get it back into play as quickly as possible.
The player ran through it half-heartedly. Richardson stopped the drill and asked, “What are you doing? Don’t waste my time”.
He got the job. Watkin says that from the day of the interview until Richardson left, he brought an intensity that demanded the very best from players and pushed the rest of the coaching team to match it.
Five years later. Richardson found himself with a very different assignment: travelling to the USA for the hard-court swing with 18-year-old Emma Raducanu. That trip became part of the most unlikely Grand Slam title in tennis history. From qualifying to winning the US Open title, Raducanu reeled off 20 straight-set wins.
Then came the twist that stunned many in the sport. After the US Open, Richardson was discarded—against what seemed like obvious logic.
Richardson’s credibility didn’t come from a long career in the main spotlight. He peaked at 133rd in the world and his closest mainstream breakthrough was reaching the third round of Wimbledon in 1997. He was a serve-volleyer, a classic British grass-court operator. Born in Peterborough in 1974—the same year as Tim Henman—Richardson rose alongside Henman through the ranks and became close.
Henman’s memories of Richardson carry a mix of affection and surprise at how quiet he is. “We met when we were 11, playing juniors together,” Henman says. “We’ve known each other for 40 years, which is absolutely terrifying!”
Henman also recalls how Richardson ended up at Culford, bringing him along for a coaching session. Watkin remembers working extremely hard just to get Henman to admit how well he knew Richardson. Eventually the truth came out: Richardson had been best man at Henman’s wedding.
Henman says Richardson was nervous in more than one way. “Public speaking is definitely out of his comfort zone.” On the stag do. Henman recalls paintballing followed by “a pretty good night out in London”. He adds: “Andrew, he’s a shy guy. He’s certainly not an extrovert but he’s got a very astute understanding of the game. He’s a great friend of mine, always will be.”.
Richardson’s playing career ended early. Injuries arrived, and a breakthrough into the top 100 never fully materialised. He retired at 26 and joined the Lawn Tennis Association as a coach. In 2005, he had a three-month stint with Alan Mackin, a Scot operating on the lower tiers of the circuit.
Mackin now coaches in Calgary, Canada, and tells his own version of the pattern: “Andrew joined me for a tournament in Edinburgh – and I won it.”
From there, Richardson’s influence widened without needing the attention. In 2011. he took a job at Bromley Lawn Tennis Club. working for Jason Goatley. whose company Jason’s Totally Tennis ran the coaching. Goatley says Richardson mentored a promising local schoolgirl—Emma Raducanu—when she was around 10 or 11. “Andrew coached Emma for two years when she was around 10 or 11,” Goatley says. “Even at that age, you could see the talent. She was a pleasure to watch.”.
Another player who Richardson coached at Bromley described him as “quietly brutal”. They remember him urging a young Emma to “play harder and faster”. Watkin echoes that style, describing the standards Richardson demanded as “unreal”. He says Richardson chose his words carefully, but once they came out “they mattered”.
The school, Watkin says, took a good tennis programme and made it excellent. Culford became one of the LTA’s top talent factories. producing players including Megan Knight—described as one of the best 15-year-olds in the country—Harry Wendelken. who is making his Wimbledon debut this year. and Henry Patten. 30. doubles world No 1 and the 2024 Wimbledon champion.
Patten says Richardson is “one of the reasons I am where I am”. He describes being turned from a “pretty average junior” into someone ready for college tennis. Training started at 7.30am, Patten recalls, and by then Richardson had already done a 5k or 10k run. Patten remembers sessions where. before any normal work began. Richardson required making “100 balls up and down the middle of the court”. “He made me work very hard, which I didn’t like at the time!”.
Patten also points to what made Richardson’s method work with different temperaments. “He was very clever in dealing with a 17, 18-year-old Henry Patten – which was not easy!”
Alan Mackin describes Richardson’s coaching relationship differently from the stereotype of hard-edged aggression. “It’s more like a friendship,” Mackin says. “He can connect exceptionally well on a human level with a player. He figures out how to piece the tactics around your personality; what way of playing is going to make you happy. He doesn’t push his vision on you.”.
Watkin adds that Richardson didn’t chase in-vogue philosophies. “He knew what had to be instilled in young tennis players and was unrelenting about that.” Watkin says Richardson would boil it down to a simple set of principles: “The basics of this game have not changed: hit it hard. run fast. don’t miss”.
The same philosophy shows up in Henman’s description of how Richardson thinks the game should be played. Henman says Richardson’s words—“hit the ball hard. run fast and don’t make mistakes”—matched what he heard from Richardson himself. And Henman adds Richardson’s wider theory: “Be brave and commit to your shots: that’s the best way to play.”.
Those ideas, simple on paper, help explain the question hanging over Raducanu’s last five years. After her US Open win. Raducanu had seven coaches. and the article points to how that can load a player up with constant technical and tactical adjustment. Henman is blunt about what he sees in tennis culture: “Tennis is a very simple game. There are a lot of people in the industry that try to make it more complicated to justify their existence.”.
Henman says Raducanu and Richardson “align” in their thoughts around the game and he hopes she sticks with it because continuity matters.
Richardson’s US Open impact is recalled through the perspective of Henman. who was part of the inner circle in New York. Henman says he was even singing “Sweet Caroline” on the minibus heading to the victory party. For Raducanu. Henman describes the key as controlled aggression—using her “incredible timing and technique to change the direction of the play”. He calls it one of the strangest things he has seen: she “was able to not get outside of her little world and just keep playing match after match.”.
So why didn’t she keep Richardson after the title? Henman and others describe how the contract ended after the US Open, and Richardson was keen to continue. But the Raducanu camp chose a coach with experience working on the WTA Tour.
Mackin says he was surprised by the jettisoning. “But as an 18-year-old winning a Grand Slam, there must be an unbelievable amount of pressure,” he says. “And it’s difficult for a younger athlete – who’s around you and what information they’re giving you.”
The decision to bring Richardson back, however, came from Raducanu herself. The article states that she reached out to an old friend via text message.
Before Richardson’s return. Raducanu had worked briefly with Mark Petchey. and Petchey also has his own view of why returning to Richardson makes sense. “I always admire people who walk their own path and Andrew has,” Petchey says. “It’s the perfect decision by Emma to work with him again. It has always been mentioned she should have stayed with him – now they get to see what they can do together and if it doesn’t work. they can both know they did their best and end that narrative.”.
Richardson’s new involvement also comes after Raducanu’s recent loss to Donna Vekic at the Queen’s final earlier this month. The piece also notes the familiarity Richardson and Raducanu already share: Raducanu is back working with a coach she has known since she was 10 years old at Bromley Lawn Tennis Club.
In Wimbledon practice this week, Richardson was pictured with fellow coach Alexis Canter, watching Raducanu serve on the practice courts.
The comeback, when it came, carried a quiet kind of resilience. After the way things ended in New York, Mackin says it’s possible Richardson’s pride could have stayed bruised. Instead, the article frames Richardson’s return as characteristic humility—he didn’t look back.
Mackin says: “The way Andrew handled that speaks to his amazing personality.” Watkin adds that the defining trait is the same through his career: “There’s a huge humility to him. He never looks back, he always looks forward.”
Since 2021. the spotlight has offered Richardson plenty of chances to become a bigger public figure and “swell his bank balance. ” but the man stayed quiet. the article says. It’s also presented as part of why Raducanu trusted him—after all. Raducanu’s confidence had been “betrayed” in past periods when coaches spoke out of school.
A specific example is given of Vlado Platenik, who, in 2025, had been in the job less than 24 hours before singing to an Eastern European newspaper. Platenik left 14 days later.
Mackin says that’s one of the reasons Raducanu brought Richardson back: “She trusts him.” He says Richardson has confidence in his abilities but “doesn’t feel the need to brag about it or capitalise financially or try to broaden his reputation.”
Petchey doesn’t argue with the emotion behind that either. His point is simpler: people should be allowed to walk their own path, and Raducanu is doing exactly that by returning to the coach she trusted long before the US Open turned everything into a story.
Richardson, for his part, is described as content with what he does. “He’s just very happy being Andrew Richardson,” Mackin says.
Across all the noise that can swirl around a Grand Slam champion. the narrative here circles back to the same thing Culford’s Watkin recognised in 2016: a coach who demanded intensity. without wasting time—and who. now that Raducanu has regained control of her career direction. has stepped back into the role she once outgrew.
Emma Raducanu Andrew Richardson Flex US Open 2021 Culford School Tim Henman coaching Bromley Lawn Tennis Club Henry Patten Harry Wendelken Megan Knight Donna Vekic Mark Petchey Vlado Platenik