Emma Raducanu's ex-coach joins another player's team months after quitting role

Emma Raducanu's former fitness trainer, Yutaka Nakamura, has officially started working with another player, this time on the men's circuit. Raducanu announced that Nakamura had joined her team last December, and he was set to travel with her during "most weeks" of the season.

However, Nakamura has been absent from her box for most of the year, reportedly stepping back for personal reasons in the spring. Raducanu has since been working with other physios, including Daniel Pohl and Jerome Poupel. And Nakamura has now seemingly joined Grigor Dimitrov's team, months after the Bulgarian's heartbreaking injury retirement at Wimbledon.

Dimitrov led top seed and eventual champion Jannik Sinner by two sets to love in the fourth round of Wimbledon this summer when he suddenly went down in tears, picking up a pectoral injury.

The former world No. 3 received off-court treatment, but he was unable to continue and returned to the court to retire from the match. Dimitrov has since revealed that he spent two hours crying in the locker room, and he later shared a photo from the hospital.

During his injury layoff, Dimitrov's team had a shake-up, and he parted ways with his coach, Jamie Delgado, who has since joined Jack Draper's camp. The 34-year-old has now returned to competition at the Paris Masters with some new faces in his box.

One of them is Nakamura, who has a wealth of experience on the WTA Tour, also working with Maria Sharapova and Naomi Osaka, as well as Raducanu.

"First time we've seen Dimitrov since Wimbledon and in that period, of course, a change in the team," commentator Colin Fleming said as cameras panned to Dimitrov's box.

"Gentleman in the white cap there is Grant Chen, you can see he's got what looks like a US college hat there, that's because he is the men's tennis head coach at SMU. Known Grigor for a long time, has Grant.

"And alongside him, of course, is Yutaka Nakamura, physical trainer who has worked with a number of players. Naomi Osaka, most recently Emma Raducanu [on the] WTA Tour.

"I think having those sorts of people in his box says to me that Dimitrov still has serious ambitions in the sport. He's 34 years of age now, he doesn't look too old to be playing top-level tennis, does he? He's a serious athlete, plenty of power in his game."

Dimitrov's work with Chen and Nakamura certainly paid off, as he came out on top in a tight 67-minute opening set in Paris, taking it in a tiebreak. He then raced through set two to seal a 7-6(5) 6-1 comeback victory.

While Nakamura now appears to be part of team Dimitrov, Raducanu has had some good news of her own on the coaching front. After Wimbledon, she teamed up with Francis Roig, one of Rafael Nadal's old mentors.

They had only agreed to work together until the end of the year. Raducanu recently ended her season early, withdrawing from her last two tournaments of 2025 due to health issues. While it was a blow, the British No. 1 also confirmed that she had extended her partnership with Roig into the 2026 season.