Emma Raducanu leaves Wimbledon with boosted confidence – but also coach question

The Herald Scotland

2 days ago

Raducanu smiled through tears in her post-match press conference as she balanced disappointment at the result with the satisfaction of having come so close.
A joy to watch @EmmaRaducanu ✨
Emma's best points from a Centre Court battle with World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka
🎥 @Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/e3FEz2j6Y9
— LTA (@the_LTA) July 5, 2025
Central to Raducanu's good run over the last few months, though, has been coach Mark Petchey, who took a break from his media commitments to be with her full-time during the grass-court season having worked on an ad hoc basis since they first linked up in Miami in March.
'It's very difficult,' said Raducanu when asked where the partnership goes from here.
'He obviously also has his commentating commitments. He agreed to help me until the end of Wimbledon and then we 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.'
If Raducanu does not continue with Petchey, it will be back to the drawing board, and the former US Open champion's difficult run after splitting from former coach Nick Cavaday in January was another demonstration that she plays her best tennis when she has people she trusts around her.
Mark Petchey and Jane O'Donoghue have other commitments (John Walton/PA)
Raducanu's childhood coach Jane O'Donoghue, who has helped out when Petchey has been unavailable, is returning to her day job in finance after taking a sabbatical and is also unlikely to travel as much.
A reunion with Cavaday could be a possibility, with the 39-year-old now recovered from the health problems that forced him to step away.
He was alongside Petchey when Raducanu played at Queen's Club and may yet take a more active role again.
Raducanu admitted the Sabalenka loss is likely to take her a few days to get over, with the defeat also meaning she will slip to British number three behind Katie Boulter and Sonay Kartal.
The goal for all three women must be to try to push their ranking up into the top 32 so they are seeded at grand slams and not so much at the whim of the draw.
Emma Raducanu waves goodbye to Centre Court (Adam Davy/PA)
Statistics provided by IBM show that the improvements Raducanu has been trying to make are having an effect, with the Kent player serving more accurately than last year and being more aggressive, with 16 per cent of her shots resulting in winners in 2025 compared to 13 per cent 12 months ago.
She should have a good chance of making gains in the build-up to the US Open, with her next tournament scheduled to come in Washington later this month.
Last year she reached the quarter-finals in the American capital having chosen not to play in the Olympics but then suffered a minor injury that prevented her playing until New York, where she lost in the first round.
Raducanu will carry belief but not over confidence on to the hard courts, saying: 'It gives me confidence that I'm not as far away as I perhaps thought before the tournament.
Incredible effort by Sabalenka 👀 what a competitor ⚡️ props to Raducanu, one of the best matches of the championships
— Nicholas Kyrgios (@NickKyrgios) July 4, 2025
'I think previously, when I was playing those top-five players, it was pretty convincing, the loss. So I think to really push Aryna, it does give me confidence.
'But, at the same time, I feel like grass for me is a great surface. It's a bit of a leveller in that sense. So I think taking it on to a different surface where it's a lot more lively in America is another challenge in itself.
'There's still a lot of things that I want to do better, a lot of things I want to improve to really solidify my game so that in the big moments I can back myself a little bit more.'