Emma Raducanu‘s coaching changes have been much talked about in the tennis world over the last two seasons. The Brit caused a sensation by coming through the qualifying to win the US Open in 2021 and then immediately parted ways with Andrew Richardson, her then coach who was on a contract period till the end of that New York Slam.
Since then, Raducanu has gone through a series of coaching changes, something that French coach Patrick Mouratoglou (also the co-founder of Tennis Majors) feels is hampering the youngster’s progress.
“That’s not the ideal situation,” Mouratoglou told Eurosport last week in London, on the sidelines of the Ultimate Tennis Showdown final. “If she was my daughter, I wouldn’t advise to do that, because you need stability to build something, whatever it is. And even more in tennis, I think it’s very important to have a project for your tennis and to follow day after day, the road to achieve what your project, your tennis project is. So whenever there are changes in terms of coaches, there are the project changes. So you cannot build something.”
“Also, you need stability. The tour is the most unstable thing on the planet. Everything changes every week. It’s pretty tough emotionally to handle all those changes. So if you have changes also with your team, then it’s too much. So I wish for her that she finds someone that she trusts enough to be able to keep the team for long enough to achieve something, because the potential we know she has, she’s proven it by winning a Grand Slam. But since this happened, nothing has been ‘consistent. I think the results and the injuries are the consequence of this instability that she has had within her team.”
“IT’S VERY DIFFICULT TO BE A TENNIS PLAYER AND YOU NEED CLARITY” – MOURATOGLOU ON RADUCANU
Raducanu hasn’t played on tour since April this year but is set to make her comeback a the ASB Classic in Auckland in a few weeks without a full-time coach in her team. Mouratoglou, who has coached Serena Williams, Simona Halep and Holger Rune in the past, believes Raducanu needs clarity rather than different thought processes coming from different coaches in a short span on time.
“At the end, you don’t know what to do. You have different voices. I believe, this is my opinion, but I believe that one of the key to success is to have one voice that you believe in, one project and to go straight from A to B. Otherwise, you’re going zigzag all the time and you, again, the more voices, the more ideas, the more lost you are as a player. It’s very complex. It’s very difficult to be a tennis player and you need clarity. That’s the most important thing. And when there are many voices, there is no clarity at all,” Mouratoglou added.
