Emma Raducanu Hints That Coaching Chaos Could Continue With Another Change

Sunday, 06 July 2025 at 20:52

byJordan Reynolds

Emma Raducanu is unsure if she will continue working with her latest coach after being eliminated at the 2025 Wimbledon Championships.

Mark Petchey became Raducanu's coach in April 2025, although it was never confirmed to be a long-term appointment. Petchey used to work with Andy Murray as a young player and has been a commentator and analyst for many years.

They continued working together throughout the grass-court swing. Although results have been quite mixed, Raducanu has enjoyed the partnership with Petchey and trusts him on and off the court.

However, Petchey's commentating commitments could now complicate matters. Speaking in a press conference after losing to Aryna Sabalenka in the Wimbledon third round, Raducanu said the pair needs to have a conversation to determine the future.

"He obviously has his commentating commitments. He agreed to kind of help me until the end of Wimbledon and then we kind of see from there because he gave up some work to work with me here, which I really appreciate and I’m grateful for. That’s a conversation that we need to have after a few days and the dust settles a little bit."

The former Grand Slam champion's previous positive comments about Petchey suggest that she would probably like to work with him full-time if possible, but traveling with a player worldwide is a significant commitment.

Working in a studio is much more convenient for Petchey and his family than living out of a suitcase for long stretches of the year. If he stayed as Raducanu's coach, he would be in North America for several weeks for the US Open and the WTA 1000 tournaments that precede it.

Raducanu is realistic about the future. The 22-year-old might take a few more days to let the dust settle after her Wimbledon exit before chatting with Petchey and plotting a path forward.

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Raducanu worked with her childhood coach, Nick Cavaday, for a year before he stepped back after the 2025 Australian Open because of family reasons. She liked their collaboration and clearly did not instigate the change.

Before Petchey, Raducanu went through an extraordinary number of coaches in her few years as a professional player. Andrew Richardson replaced Nigel Sears before the 2021 North American hard-court swing.

Raducanu's memorable run to the US Open title as an 18-year-old qualifier was guided by Richardson. The WTA star split from Richardson immediately after the tournament, causing widespread astonishment.

Since that unexpected move, Raducanu has worked with Angelique Kerber's former coach Torben Beltz, Dimitry Tursunov, Sebastian Sachs, Cavaday, Vladimir Platenik, and Petchey. That many coaches in the space of four years is astounding.

Raducanu's level with Petchey in her team was shown against Sabalenka. Although she lost the match 6-7, 4-6, this year's Miami Open quarterfinalist played excellently to compete well in her battle with the WTA world No. 1.

One thing that left Raducanu unhappy after that match was the automatic line-calling system. The Briton thinks it missed an obvious ball that Sabalenka hit out, as well as some others in her previous contests.