What happened when Emma Raducanu’s coach and Rafael Nadal played Novak Djokovic in a doubles match 16 years ago

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Before he became the coach of Emma Raducanu, Francisco Roig did have an on-court career that included playing doubles with Rafael Nadal.

Raducanu has hired Roig for the rest of the 2025 season, as Mark Petchey could not commit due to his media commitments.

They have made a successful start at the Cincinnati Open, with Raducanu now setting up a match with Aryna Sabalenka.

While Roig is most known for his coaching career nowadays, one of the last matches of his career saw him play alongside Nadal against Novak Djokovic.

What happened when Rafael Nadal and Francisco Roig played Novak Djokovic and Dusan Vemic?

Roig joined Nadal’s team as a secondary coach in 2005, four years after officially retiring from on-court competition in 2001.

However, eight years later a 41-year-old Roig made a surprise return to competition, after receiving a wildcard for the Canadian Open to compete in the doubles event alongside the player he was coaching, Nadal.

This was also a return to competition for Nadal, who had not competed since his shock defeat at Roland Garros after struggling with tendinitis in both of his knees.

Nadal was already a six-time Grand Slam singles champion in 2009, and this doubles wildcard announcement was only made more exciting when the draw was announced.

The Spanish duo were announced to play against Nadal’s rival Djokovic and his Serbian compatriot Dusan Vemic.

Despite it being Roig’s first competitive match on the ATP Tour in eight years, the partnership between himself and Nadal found success in their first match together.

Nadal and Roig beat Djokovic and Vemic, 7-5 6-4, to win their first ever match as a doubles team.

They would lose the subsequent match to the eventual runners-up, but this was not their only tournament together as a doubles team.

At the Qatar Open in 2014, Nadal and Roig would once again win their first round match before falling in the quarterfinals.

This would be the final tournament of Roig’s on-court career, before he put his full attention on coaching Nadal.

Francisco Roig’s career achievements as a tennis player

Since leaving the team of Nadal, Roig has coached Matteo Berrettini, Sloane Stephens and his current player Raducanu.

While he has not been able to achieve the success of the players he has coached, Roig did have a respectable on-court career.

Roig reached a career-high singles ranking of world number 60 and obtained one top 10 win, but his main success came on the doubles court.

Reaching a career-high doubles ranking of No.23, Roig won nine titles on the ATP Tour.

He also reached the quarterfinals of Roland Garros in 1997 alongside his fellow Spaniard Tomás Carbonell.

Now at 57 years old, Roig will look to continue guiding Raducanu up the WTA rankings as she looks to return to the form that won her the US Open title in 2021.