Elena Rybakina’s former coach gives a brutally honest verdict on the ‘stubborn’ Brit at the WTA China Opening 2024.
Emma Raducanu’s former coach Mark Petchey believes that not every questionable move made by the “stubborn” 21-year-old in the past couple of years should be labeled as “a bad decision.” He is confident that she will learn from her experiences and ultimately reach her goals.
Since becoming a Grand Slam champion in one of the most unique ways possible, the 2021 US Open champion hasn’t won any titles nor managed to establish herself as one of the best players in the game as some had predicted. And after the Briton began to struggle with her game and results, it led to scrutiny, and she has since become one of the most criticized players.
One of the first things that was used to criticize the 21-year-old was her frequent changes in coaches. Then, some also claimed that she wasn’t focused enough on tennis and that it was resulting in constant injuries and poor performance.
This year, Raducanu didn’t face that criticism because she didn’t change coaches or struggle with injuries. But she has been under scrutiny for some other matters as many believe she has been making some rather questionable scheduling decisions throughout the year.
Most recently, the former world No. 10 began her North American hard-court swing in the opening week in Washington but then remained inactive until the US Open, despite being healthy. Addressing her schedule, the 21-year-old insisted that she knew what she was doing, but then she lost in the first round at Flushing Meadows and later broke down in tears.
Petchey, who worked with Andy Murray at the beginning of the former three-time Grand Slam champion’s career, also had the opportunity to work with the 2021 US Open before she became recognized in the tennis world. Reflecting on her rapid rise in her career and everything that has transpired since, the British coach and commentator admits it has been “bumpy” but remains hopeful that the 21-year-old can make a comeback.
“I’m a big believer that you don’t really make mistakes at Emma Raducanu’s age.” I believe you make decisions and then you see solutions, and that’s where we currently are with Emma and where she finds herself. I always said right after she had the fairytale run in New York that she was going to face a pretty rough couple of years. “But I hoped that some things would have been different and not quite so rough for her, as I’m sure the people around her would have hoped for too,” Petchey told Bally Casino.
“She can be stubborn in certain aspects, which is a great quality in tennis; you need that.” You need to have a certain level of self-reliance; You need to be able to set things aside and entertain thoughts that you don’t necessarily have to implement into your game, but you must take them into consideration. I’m sure she now wishes that some things had turned out differently.
“But the reality of life is that if you find yourself at a crossroads, you need to make another decision about how to move forward from here.” From Emma’s perspective right now, there’s no point in looking back over the last couple of years and overthinking; it’s all wasted energy. “Hopefully, the bumpy ride has provided her with a roadmap or a signpost indicating where she wants to go from here to advance as a player.”
Going into the US Open, the Briton’s schedule attracted a lot of negative attention, and it was evident that critics were just biding their time for her to lose early so they could use that as an argument to prove she was wrong and they were right. And after Sofia Kenin defeated Raducanu 6-1 3-6 6-4 in the first round of a match where the 21-year-old appeared to be someone who was short on match practice, the former world No. 10 admitted that she felt “down” and that it was a mistake not to play more in the lead-up to the tournament.
“I might have been a little slow to get started.” Yeah, I would have preferred to play a bit more before coming to the US Open. You know, I know that when I have a lot of matches, just like every player, it feels really good. You feel like everything is on autopilot. So yeah, I believe I can gain some insights from it. “And you know I manage my schedule a bit differently,” she admitted.
“I’m just going to go back to the drawing board, train, analyze where I went wrong, and try to improve for the rest of the season.” “Obviously, the Slams are over for this year, but it’s not actually that long until Australia comes around again.”
Meanwhile, Raducanu is competing in this week’s WTA 500 tournament in Seoul, where she will face Peyton Stearns in her opening match.
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