Emma Raducanu has potentially found her new coach as the 2021 US Open champion will start a trial period with Vladimir Platenik at this week's WTA 1000 tournament in Indian Wells.
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Since late January, the former world No. 10 has been without a coach after Nick Cavaday abruptly left her team to tackle certain health issues.
Before the split, Cavaday became the first coach with whom Raducanu lasted one full season on the Tour.
During the Middle East swing, the Briton was assisted by some of her junior coaches from the LTA.
But now, the world No. 55 has something real going on - and if everything goes right in Indian Wells - she will probably soon confirm Platenik as her new full-time coach.
In the desert, Raducanu will start by playing against Moyuka Uchijima.
If she wins, then Coco Gauff will be her second-round rival.
Platenik coached against Raducanu last summer
15 years ago, the former Slovak tennis player worked with Dominika Cibulkova when the latter made the French Open semifinal.
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After coaching Cibulkova, Platenik also had stints with Daria Kasatkina and Veronika Kudermetova.
Most recently, he worked with Lulu Sun - the New Zealand player who beat Raducanu in the 2024 Wimbledon round-of-16.
Meanwhile, just the fact that the 22-year-old Briton decided to start a trial period with the Slovak coach probably means that she believes he is the right fit.
"I think that's why I haven't necessarily jumped into something straight away, because I want to make sure it's a right fit, she explained in early February.
And I think this period where I don't necessarily have someone is going to tell me a lot. It's going to teach me a lot, what I want, what I don't want to look for in the next person.
So I think I'm using this time period to just figure out what I really value."
