Death, taxes and Tursunov to get canned by the Raducanus by Christmas Day

This has car crash written all over it, to the extent that I'm wondering if this is as much a strategic column inches grab in the build up to the USO to underline Emma as a high impact influencer as it is a sports based appointment.

Yes Dmitry was great for Kontaveit, basically changing her life. But this is a completely different dynamic. A defending hard court slam winner with the potential to be the most internationally marketable female tennis player on the planet but who is dependent on finding the top level results to unlock that treasure chest.

What exactly about Kontaveit's run under Tursunov is Emma wanting to emulate? Crashing out of the Australian Open in Round 2? The disastrous Sunshine double?
This is so obviously deader than the Monty Python parrot by Christmas day. Are coaches that build up a good reputation with one player going to keep on queuing up to be left on the sidewalk after a few months by the Raducanu superstar circus? Logic says no but here we are.

Maybe the accompanying rush of media interest is a lure in its own right. Certainly the level of press noise underlines that when it comes to registering an impact outside the 'bubble', with the possible exception of Naomi, Raducanu is still the main show in town.

The Express reports today
'Emma Raducanu has been warned she will be used for Russian propaganda after she hired Moscow-born Dmitry Tursunov to be her new tennis coach. The comments were made by the chair of the all Parliamentary group on Russia, Chris Bryant, who encouraged the 19-year-old to reconsider her decision. / (Tursonov) has made no public statement about the war and would have to sign a formal declaration denouncing the Ukrainian invasion if he was to ever work in Britain. / Raducanu’s decision has caught the eye of British politicians including Bryant. The Labour MP, who is also a member of the foreign affairs select committee, encouraged the US Open champion to reconsider the appointment fearing its propaganda potential. 

“The Kremlin will portray this as a PR coup and an indication that the UK doesn’t really care about the war in Ukraine, so it’ll be a real shame if Emma goes ahead with this,” Bryant told Telegraph Sport. “I urge her to think again and at the very least to condemn Putin’s barbaric war.”

Julian Knight, chairman of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee was also keen to have his say, encouraging the Lawn Tennis Association to step in. The LTA helps support Raducanu, providing her with science, wellbeing and medicinal support.  “It does jar to see a Russian coaching Britain’s number one rising star,” he told the Telegraph. “You would hope that the LTA would show some leadership on this and be able to advise Emma what is the best course of action.” Mr Knight also believes that ‘a conversation needs to be had’ about his views on the war if he is to continue working with Raducanu. '


I may well be missing something and being a touch too cynical about this. It just doesn't seem to me like a decision made with the long term in mind.