Emma Raducanu trains at Ferrer Academy ahead of Rome return

Emma Raducanu has linked up again with Andrew Richardson, who coached her to the US Open title as a teenage qualifier. In anticipation of a return to the tour in Rome next week, the 23-year-old had a short training spell at the Ferrer Academy near Benidorm in Spain. Richardson is the tennis director at the academy, which was founded by former world number three and French Open runner-up David Ferrer. Raducanu's advisers say she wanted to practise on European clay before upcoming tournaments and her long history with Richardson - who also helped her as a junior - made the academy an attractive proposition. There are no currently no plans for the two to work together during the clay-court season or beyond. But Raducanu will train at the Foro Italico in Rome on Saturday in the hope she will be fit to play in next week's Italian Open. Raducanu missed March's Miami Open because of a viral illness and opted out of clay court events in Linz and Madrid to recover fully. It means her last appearance was in Indian Wells at the beginning of March. Raducanu has been relying on Alexis Canter for regular support since parting company with coach Francisco Roig after the Australian Open. She said in Indian Wells her mind was "open" to the possibility of employing another full-time coach, but expressed reservations about the scrutiny that comes with any of her choices. When Raducanu won the 2021 US Open without dropping a set as an 18-year-old qualifier, Richardson was in the coaching box. He had only replaced Nigel Sears after that summer's Wimbledon, but Raducanu and her family decided following her spectacular triumph in New York that an experienced WTA coach was required, and Richardson's contract was not extended. Raducanu is due to practise with German player Eva Lys in Rome on Saturday lunchtime. As a seeded player, she would receive a first-round bye and therefore not have to play before Thursday. There are also WTA tournaments in Strasbourg and Rabat in the week before the French Open, which rounds off the clay-court season and begins on 24 May.