📢 NEW TENNIS NEWS: Emma Raducanu’s partnership with her new coach may face a major obstacle. She is struggling at the 2025 Mutua Madrid Open.
There is no doubt that the Emma Raducanu-Mark Petchey partnership has the potential to be successful, but one Sky Sports commentator says there is a key area that could be a “problem” in the long run.
The pair’s connection goes back to her junior days as they worked together during the summer of 2020 – the year before Raducanu made her breakthrough at Wimbledon with a run to the fourth round before going on to win the US Open.
Having hired and fired several coaches since her 2021 US Open fairytale run, Raducanu linked up with Petchey at the Miami Open in March and they had instant success.
Following a difficult couple of months, the 22-year-old reached her maiden WTA 1000 quarter-final as she defeated eighth seed Emma Navarro and 17th seed Amanda Anisimova before losing against fourth seed Jessica Pegula.
That run helped her to surge back into the top 50 of the WTA Rankings and there is talk that Raducanu and Petchey could make their coaching partnership permanent.
Sky Sports’ Jonathan Overend feels Petchey is the right man for the job.
“When Petchey appeared courtside in Miami, the results were instant, it was the best tournament of her year so far,” he told Sky Sports Tennis.
“Raducanu has talked about the desire to ask lots of questions to whoever her coach may be, and Petchey absolutely has answers whenever he is asked questions, so I can imagine the conversations between the two being very in-depth.
“It’s encouraging for the future because I still believe Raducanu has a big, big result in her and it may come sooner than we all think.”
Raducanu has admitted recently that “it’s working really well, and it’s nice to be with someone that I feel comfortable with”, but for now the relationship is still “informal”.
Petchey is once again in her camp at the Madrid Open, but if they do decide to make it “formal” then there is one obstacle they need to clear.Petchey is currently working with the Tennis Channel in the United States and that could have an impact on his ability to travel with Raducanu to several tournaments.
Overend added: “The problem is going to be time and commitment because Petchey has a job with the Tennis Channel in the States, which takes up a lot of his time.
“The chopping and changing of coaching by Raducanu just illustrates a business mindset whereby if something isn’t working, she is going to change it.
“She is absolutely within her right to make sure she is as comfortable as possible with the people around her. Tennis is a very isolated sport, you’re on the road with your coach and often it’s just the two of you so that one-to-one relationship is so important.”
