British tennis star
Dan Evans
believes
Emma Raducanu
Petchey’s unconventional coaching setup with Mark might soon be headed for failure.
Raducanu enlisted Petchey, who is 54 years old, on an informal basis in March and stated that she prefers to keep her coaching arrangement with her part-time mentor flexible for now.
She remains eager to ultimately have Petchey as her official and dedicated coach on a full-time basis; however, he cannot commit due to his major commitments in broadcasting.
Petchey serves as a tennis commentator and analyst for Amazon Prime.
ITV
, the
BBC
, the Tennis Channel, Tennis Australia, and various other media outlets.
Raducanu, at 22 years old, believes that the present setup is functioning effectively.
having played some of her best tennis of the year in Miami
with a quarter-final run.
Evans, though, has told the
BBC
: ‘It can’t last if she starts losing matches and Petchey is in the commentary box. That’s not going to work.
‘I think Emma will be looking for a new coach again pretty soon if she starts to lose some matches on the grass into the US swing. I’m not sure how that can last as it is.’
When Petchey isn’t available, Jane O’Donoghue steps in, but this arrangement is happening during her leave of absence from her primary role in finance.
Raducanu acknowledges she will have to ‘find another approach’ and her present strategy involves seeking a substitute for O’Donoghue to assist Petchey.
“It has been going quite smoothly,” Raducanu stated regarding her present coaching arrangement during the Italian Open this week.
‘Mark is handling the commentary duties and will assist me whenever possible. Ideally, their schedules should match so he can join me during the matches.’
‘That’s why Jane is here to step in whenever he can’t attend the session.’
‘While she’s not working it’s nice to have her as much as possible, but she will go back to work and then I need to figure another solution out.’
Raducanu’s
Coaching arrangements have been a widely discussed subject.
Ever since her groundbreaking victory at the US Open in 2021.
Before teaming up with Petchey – her full-time coach was Nick Cavaday – but he was forced to step down in January due to personal health reasons.
She has also previously worked with Nigel Sears, Andrew Richardson, Torben Beltz, Iain Bates, Dmitry Tursunov and Sebastian Sachs and Vladimir Platenik.
There are many British fans dreaming of a future partnership between Raducanu and Andy Murray following the latter’s retirement, with the Scot
currently working in Novak Djokovic’s coaching team
.
Raducanu and Murray’s relationship
became somewhat strained after Wimbledon last year
but the pair have since made up.
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