British tennis legend Ann Jones has criticized Emma Raducanu for her apparent indecisiveness amid her high turnover of coaches in her young career.
Raducanu burst onto the scene at the 2021 US Open, becoming the first qualifier in tennis history to win a Grand Slam. She achieved this monumental feat without losing a set in all ten matches in New York. Sadly for Raducanu, her career has taken a sharp nosedive ever since.
One of the most glaring problems is her inability to retain her coaches long-term. Andrew Richardson, the coach who guided her on that successful run at the US Open two years ago, was almost instantly fired for his lack of experience "at the highest levels."
Richardson is on a long list of coaches to whom Raducanu has given their marching orders in the last few years. In fact, since 2021, the 21-year-old has cut ties with eight coaches. Her most recent coaching partnership with Sebastian Sachs lasted just six months.
Ann Jones, winner of three Grand Slam singles titles and the first British player to win Wimbledon in the Open Era spoke to the Daily Mail in an exclusive interview and was baffled to hear that one of the reasons for Raducanu's decision to chop and change was that her coaches couldn't keep up with her skepticism on a tennis court.
Relating to her own experience, Jones was highly critical of Raducanu, particularly her decision to fire Richardson, arguing that she needed to scour for solutions herself.
"Well, what did she think we all did? We had to find our own answers. You have to work at things yourself. To fire a coach after she had just won the US Open was the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard."
Currently ranked outside the world's Top 300, Raducnau's comeback will take shape next year after recovering from a six-month injury layoff. Jones doubts whether Raducanu will emulate her success from two years ago, having been troubled by injuries that were of her own doing.
"Life is about momentum. If you’ve got the momentum, you have to take advantage of it and carry on. You’ve got a natural game. What you need to do is to improve what you have got. You don’t have coaches come along and change your game."
"The results are clear. You get injured, because it’s not natural for you to hit the ball in that way. It was natural to hit it the way you hit it in the first place. How do you recover your natural game after it has been changed? It’s very difficult to find what you had before. I think she’s really enjoyed winning and I don’t think she wants to lose now. It’s a waste and we could do with a champion here."
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