It is 2016, and Andrew Richardson, a 6ft 7in former journeyman British tennis pro who would go on to create a fairytale in New York, is applying for a coaching job at Culford School, a £32,000-a-year institution in Bury St Edmunds. As part of the interview he is running a session with one of their top youngsters.
‘Andrew had a drill where if you hit the ball in the net, you had to run, get the ball and get it back in play as quickly as you could,’ says Culford’s assistant head Dave Watkin. ‘This player, who was very talented, ran a bit half-hearted. Andrew stopped the drill and said, “What are you doing? Don’t waste my time”.’
He got the job. Watkin says: ‘From the day of his interview until the day he left, he brought a quality and an intensity that demanded the very best from the players and inspired the very best from the rest of the coaching team.’
Five years later, Richardson left Culford and soon got a very different job: to travel to the USA for the hard-court swing with an 18-year-old girl named Emma Raducanu.
The result was the most unlikely Grand Slam title in tennis history as Raducanu won 20 straight sets from qualifying to the US Open title. And then came the decision from the Raducanu camp that became almost as famous as the title itself: against all apparent logic, Richardson was discarded.
We will return to that moment later. But the coach himself returned to tennis’s backstage, taking a job at the David Ferrer academy in Spain – until a text message from an older and wiser Raducanu in April of this year brought him back into the fold.
As this mysterious figure – many even within the tennis world know very little about him – returns to the spotlight, Daily Mail Sport goes back through his past to uncover the qualities that delivered that incredible title win five years ago; qualities, perhaps, which can unbox the Raducanu magic once again.
Emma Raducanu is back working with coach Andrew Richardson, whom she has known since she was a 10-year-old at Bromley Lawn Tennis Club
Richardson teamed up with an 18-year-old Raducanu and helped her pull off the most unlikely Grand Slam title in tennis history – the 2021 US Open
Andrew Richardson – known within tennis as ‘Flex’ due to his enormous, long-limbed frame – peaked at 133rd in the world, with a run to the third round of Wimbledon in 1997 the closest he came to the mainstream. He was a serve-volleyer, a classic British grass-court operator.
He was born in Peterborough in 1974 – the same year as Tim Henman, and those two became close as they rose through the ranks together.
‘We met when we were 11, playing juniors together,’ Henman tells Daily Mail Sport. ‘We’ve known each other for 40 years, which is absolutely terrifying!’
Richardson brought Henman along to take a coaching session at Culford, and Watkin remembers having to work extremely hard to get him to admit how well they knew each other. After much probing, Flex admitted: ‘Well, I was best man at his wedding.’
‘He was pretty nervous,’ recalls Henman. ‘Public speaking is definitely out of his comfort zone.’ What about the stag do? ‘We went paintballing and then we had a pretty good night out in London. 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.’
As injuries arrived and a breakthrough into the top 100 did not, Richardson retired at the age of 26 and joined the Lawn Tennis Association as a coach. In 2005, he put in a three-month stint with Alan Mackin, a Scot operating on the lower tiers of the circuit.
Mackin is now a coach himself in Calgary, Canada, and tells Daily Mail Sport: ‘Andrew joined me for a tournament in Edinburgh – and I won it.’
Sound familiar? From a humdrum event in Scotland to the US Open, Richardson appears to have a knack for an instant impact.
‘Andrew’s a shy guy,’ says Tim Henman. ‘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 peaked at 133rd in the world, with a run to the third round of Wimbledon in 1997 the closest he came to the mainstream
We pick up Richardson’s story in 2011, when he took a job at Bromley Lawn Tennis Club, working for Jason Goatley, whose company Jason’s Totally Tennis ran the coaching there. At the club, he mentored a highly promising local schoolgirl.
‘Andrew coached Emma for two years when she was around 10 or 11,’ Goatley tells Daily Mail Sport. ‘Even at that age, you could see the talent. She was a pleasure to watch.’
Another player whom Richardson coached at Bromley described him as ‘quietly brutal’, and remembers him always urging a young Emma ‘to play harder and faster’.
‘The standards he required on a tennis court were unreal,’ says Watkin, of Culford. ‘He chose his words carefully but when they came out, they mattered. He was uncompromising… relentless. At Culford, he took a good tennis programme and made it excellent.’
The school became one of the LTA’s top talent factories, producing Megan Knight, 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 No1 and the 2024 Wimbledon champion: that is the Flex legacy.
‘Andrew is one of the reasons I am where I am,’ Patten, who spent his last year at Culford under the auspices of Richardson, tells Daily Mail Sport. ‘He turned me from a pretty average junior and got me ready for college tennis.
‘We used to train at 7.30am, and by that time he had already done a 5k or a 10k run. He made me work very hard, which I didn’t like at the time! Every session we had to make 100 balls up and down the middle of the court before we could do anything else, which drove me absolutely crazy.
‘But he was very clever in dealing with a 17, 18-year-old Henry Patten – which was not easy!’
‘He turned me from a pretty average junior and got me ready for college tennis,’ says Brit player Henry Patten, who is ranked No1 in the world in doubles
‘The standards Andrew required on a tennis court were unreal. He chose his words carefully but when they came out, they mattered’
Mackin describes Richardson’s coaching style thus: ‘It’s more like a friendship, 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.’
‘He wasn’t distracted with a new in-vogue philosophy,’ adds Watkin. ‘He knew what had to be instilled in young tennis players and was unrelenting about that. He would say, “The basics of this game have not changed: hit it hard, run fast, don’t miss”.’
That last is clearly a Richardson mantra – we heard earlier how he drilled that into 10-year-old Raducanu and Henman uses the same words in describing his friend’s – and his own – theory of the game: ‘If you hit the ball hard, run fast and don’t make mistakes, you’ll be brilliant. Be brave and commit to your shots: that’s the best way to play.’
After the simple, consistent approach of Richardson, it is striking to consider how mixed the messaging must have been for Raducanu over the last five years. With seven coaches since the US Open, is it any wonder she has at times become bogged down in technical and tactical adjustments?
‘Tennis is a very simple game,’ says Henman. ‘There are a lot of people in the industry that try to make it more complicated to justify their existence.
‘Andrew and Emma align in their thoughts around the game, and I really hope she sticks with it, because I think it is absolutely time for some continuity.’
Richardson’s coaching style ‘is more like a friendship, he can connect exceptionally well on a human level with a player,’ says his former charge Alan Mackin
Raducanu has had seven coaches since her US Open glory including a six-month with Spaniard Francis Roig, who worked with Rafa Nadal
Raducanu certainly kept things simple at the US Open: brutally, ruthlessly simple.
Henman became part of the inner circle in New York – he was there singing Sweet Caroline on the minibus driving them to the victory party – and is well placed to describe Richardson’s influence on her game that summer.
‘For Emma it was that balance of controlled aggression: use her incredible timing and technique to change the direction of the play,’ says Henman, who as usual will be part of the BBC’s commentary team at Wimbledon. ‘The most incredible thing was how she was able to not get outside of her little world and just keep playing match after match. It is still one of the most extraordinary things I’ve seen.’
So, why on earth did she not stick with Richardson? Their contract expired after the US Open but he was keen to continue. Yet Raducanu, and those around her, decided they needed a coach with experience of working on the WTA Tour.
Not an unreasonable view, but what shines out in speaking to those who have worked with Richardson throughout his life is that a good coach is a good coach, no matter the level.
‘I was surprised,’ says Mackin of the jettisoning of Richardson. ‘But as an 18-year-old winning a Grand Slam, there must be an unbelievable amount of pressure. And it’s difficult for a younger athlete – who’s around you and what information they’re giving you.’
On that point, it is noteworthy that the decision to reappoint Richardson was taken very much by Raducanu herself; not by those around her. She simply reached out to an old friend via text message.
Before Richardson, Raducanu worked briefly with Mark Petchey, who also helped her out last year. ‘I always admire people who walk their own path and Andrew has,’ Petchey tells Daily Mail Sport. ‘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 (left) and fellow coach Alexis Canter watch Raducanu serve on Wimbledon’s practice courts this week
Richardson celebrates Raducanu’s amazing victory in the 2021 US Open final – but Raducanu dispensed with his services shortly after her fairytale in New York
Richardson helped Raducanu get to the Queen’s final earlier this month where she lost to Donna Vekic
After the way things ended in New York, some in Richardson’s position, with their pride stung, would have turned down Raducanu’s approach. The humility with which he has come back into the fold is characteristic of the man.
‘The way Andrew handled that speaks to his amazing personality,’ says Mackin, and Watkin adds: ‘There’s a huge humility to him. He never looks back, he always looks forward.’
Since 2021, there have been any number of media opportunities for Richardson to raise his profile and swell his bank balance but the quiet man stayed quiet. That will not have passed Raducanu by as, over the years, her confidence has been betrayed by coaches talking out of school. Vlado Platenik, in 2025, had been in the job less than 24 hours before he was singing like a canary to an Eastern European newspaper. He was gone 14 days later.
‘That’s one of the reasons Emma’s brought Andrew back into the fold: she trusts him,’ says Mackin. ‘He’s confident in his own abilities but he doesn’t feel the need to brag about it or capitalise financially or try to broaden his reputation.
‘He’s just very happy being Andrew Richardson.’
Mark Petchey is a Racket Sports Ambassador at Neilson Beach Clubs, the UK’s leading provider of overseas active holidays.
