Mark Petchey confirms it is true that Emma Raducanu can be a bit stubborn at times but also highlighted that some of the claims made against her are simply not true since he absolutely loved coaching the 21-year-old.
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Before the British tennis star became popular or even known on the WTA Tour, she worked for 10 months with Andy Murray's former coach Petchey. After ending her partnership with the former world No. 80, she also briefly worked with Nigel Sears during 2021 Wimbledon and she was with Andrew Richardson when she famously won the US Open as a qualifier.
But shortly after her historic win at Flushing Meadows, Raducanu shockingly decided to fire the coach who guided her to a maiden Grand Slam win. However, that turned out to be just the beginning of her frequent coaching changes as Torben Beltz, Dmitry Tursunov and Sebastian Sachs also had brief stints with the Briton between early 2022 and mid-2023.
The criticism surrounding her constant coaching changes is well-documented and some strong claims were made against her, like the one that she was too hard to work with. In one of her interviews, the former world No. 10 defended herself by once revealing that there were certain questions to which her coaches couldn't give an answer.
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But this season, Raducanu has been working with Nick Cavaday for the entire year. And now, her former coach Petchey - who also worked with Maria Sakkari in the past - says the 2021 US Open champion was "one of the best" to work with.
"In the 10 months we worked together, I was even more impressed by her application, desire, and her inquisitive nature to learn about the game. She's stubborn in certain areas which is a great quality in tennis, you need that. You need to have a certain self-reliance; you need to be able to put things to one side and entertain thoughts that you don't necessarily always need to implement into your game, but you must consider things. I can only talk from my experiences, but she was one of the best players that I've ever had as a tennis coach and I wish her the very best," the British coach told Bally Casino.
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Petchey further defends Raducanu
After reaching the stars and basically becoming a major tennis star overnight, it didn't take long before the 21-year-old experienced the negative side of fame after she started to deal with injuries and poor results which led to some massive criticism and scrutiny. But at the time of her win, she was just 18 and making her first steps on the WTA Tour.
I think it's important for her to block out the noise. I think everyone's going to have an opinion on her and broadcast it, but people are trying to insert themselves into her shoes which they have never worn before, even in their own career or life. But it is easy to say these things from the outside looking in," Petchey explained.
When she won the US Open back in 2021, no blueprint or manual could explain what was going to happen in her life or career after that breakthrough moment. When you get offers for sponsorships and endorsements as a player, its very hard to turn those down, especially when she was young and new to the tour. There are very few players that would have done anything differently.
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How Raducanu blasted her critics a couple of months ago?
At the start of the grass season in Great Britain, the 2021 US Open winner had a cheeky message for her critics, telling them that unsuccessful people can never be criticized and that she would be worried only if people stopped talking about her.
"I think it (criticism that athletes and managers get when they are not performing well) just comes down to success. I think when they're not talking about you, that's when you need to start to worry," Raducanu said at the time.
Also, she said that she was acting independently and that no one outside her circle could influence her moves.
Im going to do things on my own time. Im in no rush to do anything and everything I am doing and playing for now is for myself. Whether thats tournament scheduling, whether thats how much time I take off to train compared to compete, I think Im just way more focused on my own lane and less susceptible to outside opinions or views. Im just enjoying it, just doing everything for myself and really just being independent out here," the British tennis star added in June.
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Meanwhile, Raducanu missed the last part of the Asian swing due to a foot injury but is expected to return to action at the Billie Jean King Cup Finals.
