Emma Raducanu has opted to take some time away from tennis after her fine run to the Miami Open quarter-finals, but that decision has drawn some criticism.
Raducanu produced her best tennis since her famous 2021 US Open win as she stormed into the last eight in Miami, beating top 10 player Emma Navarro and recent WTA 1000 tournament winner Amanda Anisimova before losing to Jessica Pegula in a tight three-set match.
The 22-year-old then decided to opt out of playing for Great Britain in the Billie Jean King Cup last week, while also pulling out of the WTA 250 tournament in Rouen this week.
She is still on the entry list at the Madrid Open later this month and is also due to play in the WTA 1000 tournament in Rome at the start of May, but there is no word yet whether she will play in either event.
Raducanu decided to take a break from tennis to allow her body to recover after her five matches in Miami, but former world No 1 Andy Roddick has questioned that decision.
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In the latest episode of his always-entertaining Served podcast, Roddick expressed his surprise at Raducanu’s move to take a step back from the game as he clearly feels she should have tried to build on the momentum she built up in Miami.
“She just found her form… why is she recalibrating? What does that mean?” asked Roddick. “She looked great. She looked like a top 10 player in Miami. Why stop now?
“I get so frustrated. I’m such a fan of hers. I like listening to her reasoning on things, but you get to the quarter-finals, you are finally getting momentum and then you stop.
“Why put a speed bump in the middle of your season? It just happens over and over.
“You got to the quarters, let’s build. Let’s keep it rolling. I don’t think clay is going to be her best surface, but she is really good on grass. Let’s hope she sticks to the strategy this time.”
Raducanu is reported to be in talks to bring Mark Petchey on board as her new coach after the former British Davis Cup player made a positive impact in her camp during the Miami Open.
Petchey is a prominent member of the Tennis Channel’s broadcast team and will need to find a way to manage that agreement to also include work with Raducanu, with Roddick suggesting she may be running out of coaches.
Raducanu sacked her latest coach Vladimir Platenik after working with him for just one match, as he joined a list of former coaches that also included Andrew Richardson, Torben Beltz, Dmitry Tursunov, Sebastian Sachs and Nick Cavaday.
Roddick believes that the amount of change would make it hard for Raducanu to attract a top coach to her team, as he suggests her familiarity with Petchey could make it the perfect fit.
“I love Petchey. The Tennis Channel was accommodating his commentary schedule around working with Emma in Miami,” he added.
“Petchey is a great fit. I love Mark Petchey. He has a great tennis game and he is endlessly curious about the game.
“But based on the churn, she hires people for two days at a time, three weeks at a time. She needs Petchey now. It’s tough to enter into a new agreement and give up whatever else you have going on in life knowing this could be a two-week situation.
“You are narrowing the pool of coaching talent based on you having this quick trigger on firing people. That’s rational right?
“I don’t think you can get any feedback [on a new coach] on an eight-day trial. I don’t even know what you are doing. It’s the craziest thing I’ve heard since the [Denver] Nuggets sacked Mike Malone.
“I hope it all works with Petchey. I hope she gives a coaching relationship a chance to sink it. She is just so good for the game and she is so good at tennis.
“The last thing we want is in four years time having the same conversation that we’ve had for the last three and a half years.
“I think the world of Petch and I think the world of Emma. I think she is phenomenal. I just hope there is a tolerance for something being uncomfortable and not just this knee-jerk reaction to change.”
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