Worried by rumors that he was going to stop working with Emma Reducanu in order to work with Belinda Bencic, Dmytro Tursunov gave a long interview in which he explained what made him make such a decision.

Dmytro Tursunov is upset that he was not allowed to work: “One vote is needed”

Despite the fact that he declared that he was happy with Emma, ​​the Russian made it clear that he was worried about the family’s interference in her preparation. Tursunov believes that the Briton needs a long-term coach (at least a year) and said that he left the athlete because he felt that there would be problems in the future.

“No, I didn’t know. This is not true (not that he stopped working with Belinda Bencic). I moved away from Emma whether another (player) was available or not. We had not agreed on the terms of the continued partnership and there were some red flags (red flags) that I could no longer ignore. That’s why I’m a little sick of reading stuff like this… I didn’t switch from one player to another, I wouldn’t.

Our trial period ended at the US Open, but I decided to stay, hoping that everything would be as it should be, I really wanted this collaboration to work. Emma is a great, hardworking girl who doesn’t act like a superstar. She is extremely talented, very athletic and perfectly coordinated. She wants to improve her game and is obsessed with tennis. I liked working with her, I really wanted everything to work out. It was a very difficult decision to leave a player I like and respect.

Emma should be involved in the project for at least one year, ideally at least two and a half years. Perhaps many do not understand, considering that she has already won the US Open. As I told her team, it only takes one vote. To try this. If it doesn’t work out, let them do as they see fit, but at least try.

She can do things that other players can’t. The ingredients are very good, but you can still screw up. So I felt like it was going to be an interesting project, but a very long-term project, and as a coach, you want to believe that you’re going to be working for that period of time.

Given her situation (not the fact that she changed many coaches), now every coach has an opinion… I was hoping to find a solution to continue, so I stayed for a few weeks after the trial period. But in the end we just couldn’t agree on terms so I had to leave and Belinda had nothing to do with it.

Of course, I would prefer to stay and work with the single player, but I don’t always make that decision. I went with Emma, ​​yes. It was my choice. I could have stayed, I could have agreed to whatever her team had to offer. But deep down I felt that this was not what I was meant to do.

As difficult as the decision to leave was, because I had never walked away from a player before, I felt it was the right decision. Emotionally I wanted to stay, but logically I felt I had to go. I felt that there would be problems later and I wanted to avoid them for my peace of mind” – Dmytro Tursunov for great tennis.

Emma Reducanu played 15 matches under the guidance of the former tennis player from the ATP circuit and managed to win 8 of them, the biggest result was qualifying for the semi-finals of the tournament in Seoul.

From the 76th player in the ranking to the top 20 players of the WTA, the Olympic champion

Tursunov chose Belinda Bencic, a player ranked 13th in the WTA ranking, for the job. The Swiss is the Olympic champion, the title was won at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

Previously, he worked with Olena Vesnina, Aryna Sabalenko and Anette Kontaveit.

Tursunov is the fourth trainer Emma has worked with in the past 16 months, following Andrew Richardson, Nigel Sears and Torben Beltz.

Who is Dmytro Tursunov?

Previously ranked 20th in the ATP ranking (won 7 career titles), Tursunov (39 years old) currently coaches Elena Vesnina (December 2017 – March 2018), Aryna Sabalenko (July 2018 – December 2019 and February – August 2020) . ), Anette Kontaveit (August 2021 – June 2022) and Emma Reducanu (July 2022 – October 2022).

The Russian has won 11 WTA titles with athletes he has coached so far: New Haven, Wuhan (2018), Shenzhen, Wuhan, Elite Trophy (2020), Doha (2021) with Aryna Sabalenka, and later Cleveland, Ostrava, Moscow, Cluj-Napoca (2021) and St. Petersburg. Petersburg (2022) with Anette Kontaveit.