Emma Raducanu's ex-coach, Mark Petchey, is confident she will rise up the WTA Rankings but thinks the 22-year-old must avoid more injury issues.
Raducanu's hopes of regularly challenging at the top of the women's game after her stunning 2021 US Open triumph have been damaged by injuries in the three years, drawing attention from the media.
After enduring various injuries in 2022, Andy Murray suggested that his compatriot hire a strength and conditioning coach, but she decided not to, using rotating LTA physios instead of appointing someone permanently.
Raducanu may have regretted that decision after sustaining severe wrist and ankle injuries that sidelined her for the final nine months of 2023. Both issues required surgery before the Briton could return to tennis.
After another injury ruled her out for almost two months in the closing stages of 2024, Raducanu changed the approach that did not seem to be working and hired Yutaka Nakamura, Naomi Osaka and Maria Sharapova's former fitness coach, for the 2025 season.
The 2021 US Open champion wants to become one of the best athletes in women's tennis. Appointing such a highly regarded fitness trainer should help her achieve that ambitious goal.
Petchey, who worked with Raducanu for ten months at the start of her career, holds the 22-year-old in high regard. He thinks his former player will end her career as a multiple Grand Slam champion.
In the short term, that might not be a realistic goal. Petchey, who talked to Betway, believes Raducanu could finish 2025 inside the Top 25, but only if she avoids the injury issues that have plagued her since securing a maiden Grand Slam title over three years ago.
"I said back in 2021 that the next couple of years were going to be pretty bumpy for her and hopefully she was going to get the right guidance. It’s probably been a year longer than I thought it was going to be but if you were to ask me now how I see 2025 going, I feel she'll be inside the world's top 25 at the end of the season."
"Physically, hopefully, those sorts of issues are behind her. But if she plays a relatively full season, I think she'll be inside the top twenty-five looking at where her game is at and the things that she's trying to prove. I do think she needs to put her game on the court consistently now for six months."
"She doesn’t have to change too many things. There comes a point where you need to put that game on the court for six months and get the results. I genuinely think that lessons have been learned and she's going to fly high."
Petchey also defended Racuanu from criticism. He thinks it is easy for people to point out mistakes she made at such a young age and believes those lessons learned will help her.
"It's very easy in life to judge and to point out the mistakes that people make. You can only live your life forward. From my perspective what Emma has had to face in the last two and a half years are good harsh lessons."
"Those lessons have made her realise that if she wants to be one of the best players in the world there's a way that you have to do it. There's not really a cheat sheet."
"There's a volume of work and a necessary number of tournaments that you have to play. My sense is that she's super aware of that now. From that perspective, I think she is in the right sort of spot that she needs to be in, in terms of being able to become a player that's residing comfortably inside the world's top twenty."