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Emma Raducanu and Nick Cavaday were on court together in Melbourne on Monday
Emma Raducanu has reunited with childhood coach Nick Cavaday in time for the Australian Open where she will play her first Grand Slam for a year.
The 2021 US Open champion, sidelined for much of 2023 after ankle and wrist surgeries, has been working with a series of LTA coaches since returning to the practice courts in October.
The 21-year-old has had a sequence of short-lived coaches since turning professional, but it is understood both she and Cavaday have the desire to work together beyond the Australian Open.
She and Briton Cavaday have begun working together in Melbourne before Tuesday’s charity match against Naomi Osaka.
Raducanu practised for two hours, with the help of a hitting partner, under the roof of the Rod Laver Arena on Monday after a second consecutive day of persistent rain in Melbourne.
Cavaday, who was head coach of the LTA’s Loughborough Academy until April of last year, also spent time on court with Raducanu in London before Christmas.
But the decision that the 37-year-old would fly out to Melbourne to coach Raducanu at the Australian Open was only made in the last week.
“I’ve known Nick since I was 10 years old and he was helping me out the last week at the NTC [National Tennis Centre]. Before that the LTA helped me a ton,” Raducanu said while competing on the WTA Tour in Auckland last week.
Like Jane O’Donoghue, who assisted Raducanu in Auckland last week, Cavaday worked with the former British number one when she was a junior.
A former Futures Tour player, Cavaday coached British players Aljaz Bedene (who later reverted to Slovenian nationality) and Dom Inglot before spending four and a half years at the Loughborough Academy.
Since leaving in April, he has been coaching British 18-year-old Ranah Stoiber.
Cavaday is a big believer in the development of a player, and in carefully tailored programmes to deliver long-term improvement.
Raducanu, who parted ways with German coach Sebastian Sachs shortly after having three operations on her hands and left ankle in May, only started seriously to consider coaching options in December, once a return to the tour in Australia seemed very likely.
She will not need to qualify for next week’s Australian Open, having gained direct entry after the withdrawal of the American Lauren Davis, and so has taken the chance to play two exhibition matches.
Tuesday evening’s match with Osaka will be the first of a series of charity matches on the Rod Laver Arena this week.
And then on Thursday, Raducanu will play 16-year-old Mirra Andreeva, who reached the fourth round of last year’s Wimbledon, at the Kooyong Classic to the east of Melbourne.
In Auckland last week, Raducanu took last year’s Wimbledon semi-finalist Elina Svitolina to three sets, having beaten Elena-Gabriela Ruse in her first match since April.
“The biggest goal I have going forward is just being healthy, being injury free,” Raducanu said last week when asked about her goals for the season.
“And then tennis-wise I think it’s really important for me to approach it with the identity of how I want to play tennis and not let anything dictate that. And then, results-wise, I want to be more consistent.”
