Emma Raducanu’s former coach reveals how he was sacked after one match
Emma Raducanu told her latest coach Vladimir Platenik that she no longer wanted to work with him shortly before her opening match at the Miami Open, he has revealed.
Speaking to the BBC, Platenik insisted he was “absolutely surprised” when Raducanu informed him that their partnership was over after just one match in Indian Wells.
The Slovak coach insisted he understood Raducanu’s position, as he opened up on becoming the latest in a growing list of former coaches who have worked with the 2021 US Open champion.
“I totally understand Emma, she’s not in an easy position. The world is looking at her after the US Open [which she won in 2021] and everybody is expecting – including herself – what she is going to do next,” said Platenik.
“So for me, it’s absolutely understandable that she’s under a lot of pressure. She told me she was feeling stressed.
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“There are no hard feelings from my side. She finished the relationship in a fair way, maybe too quickly, but this is tennis, this is sport. We need to respect that.
“She was not feeling OK, and that was her decision. I didn’t want to go into deeper communication about that. I think the player needs to feel good, and the player needs to make a decision. Sometimes you make a good decision, and sometimes bad.
“She needs to feel good. If she comes back in six months and says ‘Vlado, I made a mistake because actually it was working and I just needed to try to find myself’, it’s OK – this is life,” he said.
“You need to search for your best, you need to learn and only time will show what decision she will make and if they were correct or not.”
Platenik was quoted in newspapers joking that working with Raducanu is ‘coaching suicide’ and he suggested that was part of the reason why she ended their partnership.
“Emma is stressed also about the newspaper article, so the agent made this comment: ‘It’s maybe a little bit unfortunate, but I’m not angry’,” he continued.
“I’m always saying the truth because tennis is an honest sport. I was always honest, maybe I was too honest and a lot of players and parents and people around players don’t like it, but tennis is an honest sport.”
Platenik also revealed his surprise at Raducanu’s level on court during his one match on her team, as she lost against Moyuka Uchijima of Japan.
“She was not really able to stay in the rallies, there were a lot of problems to play on the move with the different speed, different spin and different angle,” he added.
“We had a good discussion, the communication was good from her side. I was very happy because I really must say that I never had a player improving that fast – in eight, nine days.
“She was getting a lot of things very fast. And I think it also showed in the first round [victory over Sayaka Ishii in Miami]. She was playing very correct, technically and tactically – exactly what we were practising, so I’m happy and I hope that she could take something out of my help.”
While Platenik offered to return to the Raducanu camp if she had a change of heart, it seems unlikely the coach who has also worked with Daria Kasatkina will be back with the British No 2 any time soon after such a high-profile exit.
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