Emma Raducanu believes her coaching agreement with Mark Petchey and Jane O’Donoghue is “working pretty well”, but former world No 21 Dan Evans has raised concerns about the long-term future.
2021 US Open winner Raducanu started working with Petchey during the Miami Open and they enjoyed instant success as she reached the quarter-final of the WTA 1000 event, resulting in a return to the top 50 of the WTA Rankings.
Both parties have made it clear that for now it is an ad-hoc partnership as Petchey also works as a tennis commentator, meaning he won’t be able to mentor Raducanu at all tournaments.
But that is where Jane O’Donoghue, a former Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) national women’s coach, comes into the picture as she is expected to step in when Petchey is unavailable.
Although the agreement is off to a solid start, former British No 1 Evans feels things will get complicated when Raducanu starts to lose matches.
“It can’t last if she starts losing matches and Petchey is in the commentary box. That’s not going to work,” he told BBC 5 Live Tennis.
“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.”
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Both Petchey and O’Donoghue – who is currently on a sabbatical from her full-time job – are with Raducanu in Rome this week for the Italian Open, but the latter’s agreement is also short-term as she won’t be available next year when she returns to her job in finance.
“It’s been working pretty well,” the world No 49 told BBC Sport.
“Mark is doing his commentary work and around that he is going to help me as much as he can and hopefully the times align that he can be there with me in the matches.
“That’s why Jane is here for when he’s not able to make it to 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.”
The big question is who will support Petchey when O’Donoghue is no longer available.
Raducanu added: “I just need to work on who that person is.”
With both Petchey and O’Donoghue by Raducanu’s side for now, they have been tasked to help her to take her game to the next level.
“I feel slightly better than I did in Madrid,” the British No 2 said.
“I want to use this period of the clay season to try and work on certain things in my game that I think are going to help me bridge the gap to the next level.
“I want to take more balls on, I want to be more aggressive in certain points – I want to structure the points more on my terms.
“I know I may make more errors doing that, but I’m willing to go through that.”
The post Emma Raducanu’s agreement with Mark Petchey not a long-term solution, warns former British No 1 appeared first on Tennis365.
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