Emma Raducanu has learned some ‘harsh lessons’ over the last couple of years, but she is ready to bounce back to the top of the game in 2025.
That’s the verdict of respected coach and tennis expert Mark Petchey, who worked with Raducanu in the weeks before her famous 2021 US Open win.
Petchey has been a prominent supporter of Raducanu during a period when the critics have been circling around the young Brit, but he suggests she is well-placed to storm back to the top of the women’s game next year.
Petchey believes Raducanu has made some mistakes on her journey since that iconic New York victory, but he suggests the criticism that has been coming her way is misplaced.
“It’s very easy in life to judge and to point out the mistakes that people make. You can only live your life forward,” Petchey bold Betway.
“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.
“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.”
Raducanu may have had too many voices giving her advice over the last three years, with coaching changes coming at a rapid rate and Petchey believes that experience will have guided her to believe she can make her own decisions.
“I’m a big believer that you should follow your own path. There certainly wasn’t a blueprint for Emma to win the US Open, which she did. And I don’t think she should be following anyone’s path,” he continued.
“Whatever path she’s trodden in the last couple of years is something that she owns. The knowledge from that sort of journey that she’s been on, she needs to implement without looking at anyone else.
“You can be inspired by other people, but when you’re as good as Emma and from the lessons she has learned, she knows that puts her in the best place to play the best tennis.
“Tennis is an individual sport for a reason. You need to be very selfish in your outlook to do the things that are right for you rather than look at other people.”
Petchey added that he believes some of the injury issues that have hampered Raducanu were due to a lack of time on court and he hopes that can be solved in 2025.
“Physically, hopefully, those sorts of issues are behind her,” he stated.
“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.”
“The lack of matches at the top level and the stress and the emotional stress will have a potential impact on her picking up injuries and I think that that’s where the lessons are learned.
“The more times you’re outside the arena and not playing in stressful situations, there is going to be a tendency to get more injured when you go back into those because you’re going to push yourself harder.
“You can do all of those things in practice, but it’s never quite the same as when you do matches and you’re trying to compete for Grand Slam titles which Emma will be doing in the not-too-distant future.
“There has to be a correlation between not playing enough matches and some of the injuries that she’s unfortunately picked up.”
