When Emma Raducanu strolled along Elwood Beach last Monday, she will have been very foot-conscious.
It led to her sixth retirement since the start of last year, threatened her participation in the Australian Open and undermined the optimism she felt for the new year.
“We were a bit upset the first week,” Raducanu said.
But the ankle has healed, and even if the preparation for this particular Grand Slam has been a little thin, optimism has returned too.
A core team is gradually being formed. Sebastian Sachs holds the position of coach, Jez Green’s expertise in strength and conditioning is paying off, and physio Will Herbert is increasingly featured on tour.
Raducanu’s coaching streak has been well documented, but the word over the past few months is that she’s really, really keen to develop a long-term partnership with one of them.
Dmitry Tursunov decided in October that he was not that manwarning – in an interview with tennismajors.com – that Raducanu consulted too wide a range of voices.
“I think the way I was raised, I always had quite a few people around me and it’s more just me picking and choosing what I want to take and what I want to leave,” the British number one told BBC Sport in response to the Russian’s comments.
“I think part of it was also that I didn’t have that small core squad. I didn’t have that strong setup and squad that I really trusted.
“So for me this year, now I feel like I have more, and I probably don’t need to consult as widely.”
Sachs is young, at 30, and having had a brief career as a player on the Futures Tour, can also be a handy punching partner.
A calm and attentive man, he has already worked as a coach with Victoria Azarenka, Julia Gorges and then Belinda Bencic, who became a top 10 player and Olympic champion under his guidance.
“We kind of lean on other people’s ideas, and he’s also a very good person to have in the team,” Raducanu said. “I think it’s been going really well so far and I really want to keep going and keep it going.”
Herbert’s healing hands will have been invaluable over the past week with so little time to restore that ankle to full health.
He also offers Raducanu’s fitness program when Green is unavailable.
The strength and conditioning coach started working with the 20-year-old late last year and is designing a program that Herbert can deliver when he is away.
Green, who was instrumental in Andy Murray’s success, worked mainly for Dominic Thiem and is not in Australia this year.
But it is expected that he could also do several weeks with Raducanu. A plan for the year is likely to emerge after the Australian Open.
Raducanu’s fortunes improved in the second half of last season. She has won eight of the 15 matches she has played since Wimbledon and reached the semi-finals in Seoul. But then came a wrist injury which cut short her season and left her unable to do any meaningful work on the pitch until the start of December.
“You can tell she’s a lot stronger than she was this time last year,” former UK number one Laura Robson told BBC Radio 5 Live this week.
“The improvements I’ve seen over the last two days with the ankle looked really promising, but you never know if it’s going to be enough, if the turn is too fast and you’re thinking about the ankle instead of the tennis.
“You have to think long term. She’s done all this off-season work – if it’s too early to come out on Monday, then that’s fine.”
