Emma Raducanu traveled to her father's country of Romania to compete at the Transylvania Open in Cluj-Napoca.
The British player received a very warm welcome in the country upon arrival but her first time playing the countries where she has roots will not be perfect. The Transylvania Open announced one day ago that matches will be played behind closed doors despite efforts to allow fans to watch their favourites play. That comes as a blow for Raducanu who was excited to play in front of Romanian tennis fans.
Another Romanian, Simona Halep also won't get the chance to play in front of her fans. Raducanu will once again be without a coach at the event as she is yet to formally hire a coach. The coaching search has been ongoing since her US Open triumph and many potential names have been brought up. Before flying out to Romanian Raducanu did spend a few days working with Esteban Carril.
He did not take the trip to Romanian due to his affiliation with the Lawn Tennis Association and his obligations to fellow Brit Katie Swan. Carril has been one of the names tied to Raducanu as a potential coach but nothing concrete happened so far despite them working together in LTA facilities in London. Her agent and father also made the trip to Cluj Napoca.
Event director Patrick Ciorcila spoke about Raducanu ahead of the event saying:
"Although she has visited Romania many times this is Emma and her father’s first visit to Cluj and they said they are keen to look around. There is huge interest in her here because of her Romanian connections. It was Emma who reached out to us saying she would like to play and so when I received that email I was very happy."