Emma Raducanu is set to work with Mark Petchey for her 2025 Wimbledon campaign. The former US Open champion needed approval from the Tennis Channel, for whom the 54-year-old works as a commentator, but this has now arrived in plenty of time.
Raducanu began the year working with Nick Cavaday, who had helped her get her career back on track in 2024. However, the coach was forced to step away from his responsibilities for health reasons.
Since Cavaday’s decision, Raducanu spent time working with Vlado Platenik on a trial basis. The Slovakian was in her corner at Indian Wells, but was nowhere to be seen at the Miami Open as the British star made it all the way to the quarter-finals without a coach.
Petchey was part of Raducanu’s entourage in Miami, while not working on an official basis with the 22-year-old. That will change in the coming months, though, as the pair prepare to work together for the clay and grass court seasons.
A former singles and doubles player, Petchey previously worked with Andy Murray early in the Scot’s career. Mirror Sport understands the Tennis Channel won’t stand in his way, with Raducanu preparing to build on her Miami run.
“Despite losing today I can take some good positives from this week and look forward,” Raducanu said after her run came to an end at the hands of Jessica Pegula. “I think I just need to take a beat and kind of reevaluate what I’m doing. This week it was good but I need to kind of just figure things out and then I’ll make a plan from there.”
She also spoke about the benefit of having familiar faces with her during tournaments, with childhood mentor Jane O’Donoghue also present in Miami. “Yeah, they bring small doses of happiness that I guess just keep you going,” she said.
After beating Raducanu, Pegula will take on surprise package Alexandra Eala for a place in the final. Filipina qualifier Eala stunned Iga Swiatek in the quarters, beating the second seed in straight sets.
Days after reports of his split with Raducanu came to light, Platenik shed some light on his work with the British star. “Obviously I was surprised,” the 49-year-old told The Times.
“It’s not easy to start in the middle of the season and having a little bit of pressure on Emma. But it is her decision. It’s sport, so whatever she feels is best for her, we need to respect it, we need to go with that. I think it’s just too much pressure on her. Maybe my presence was even creating more pressure.”
He added: “I never seen a player improve that fast in one week, even though obviously a lot of things were new for her. We were discussing and watching a lot of videos. After a couple of days she was really positive.”
Sky has slashed the price of its Essential TV and Sky Sports bundle in an unbeatable new deal that saves £192 and includes 1,400 live matches across the Premier League, EFL and more.
At Reach and across our entities we and our partners use information collected through cookies and other identifiers from your device to improve experience on our site, analyse how it is used and to show personalised advertising. You can opt out of the sale or sharing of your data, at any time clicking the “Do Not Sell or Share my Data” button at the bottom of the webpage. Please note that your preferences are browser specific. Use of our website and any of our services represents your acceptance of the use of cookies and consent to the practices described in our Privacy Notice and Cookie Notice.
