Emma Raducanu should have three main goals for rest of 2025, says former coach
The 2025 Grand Slam season is done and dusted, but there is still plenty on the line for Emma Raducanu during the final few months of the season, according to her former coach Mark Petchey.
This year has been Raducanu’s most productive in terms of tournaments entered and matches played as she has featured in 19, which includes this week’s Korea Open, while she has played 44 matches with a win-loss record 26-18.
This is also the first year where she has won at least one match at all four Grand Slams with her best performances coming at the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open where she made it to the third round.
Having started the year at No 60 in the WTA Rankings, Raducanu currently sits at No 33, just outside a seeding position for the majors and that has been an Achilles’ heel as it meant she faced a seeded player earlier in all four Slams.
The 22-year-old lost against Swiatek at the Australian Open and Roland Garros, against world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka at Wimbledon and against ninth seed Elena Rybakina at Flushing Meadows.
With not too many points to defend during the rest of the year, Petchey feels Raducanu should focus on getting into the top 30 of the rankings during the Asian swing.
“If I was Emma, I’d have like three targets,” he told tennis betting site BetVictor. “Number one would be to get inside the top 32. I don’t think that you need to be anything more than that.
“I think it needs to be inside 32 to be seeded for the Australian Open at the back end of the Asian swing. That would be the goal. So, whether that’s 25 or comfortably inside, don’t have to stress, know you’re going to be seeded.
“A seeding around 25 will be better than 28 to 32 because otherwise you have the potential to play those top four seeds in the third round. Ideally, 27 and lower would be like the number one goal from the whole of the Asian swing.”
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Raducanu will drop 108 points at this week’s Korea Open, but she won’t have any points to defend at the upcoming China Open and Wuhan Open, giving her an opportunity to climb further up the rankings.
Petchey – who coached Raducanu on an informal basis from March until August this year – also believes the 2021 US Open winner should strive for consistency and work on her serve.
He added: “Number two goal is obviously to feel that your game can be more impactful, more often. She’s obviously been taking care of the players that she knows she can beat and some of the players that were ranked ahead of her.
“But obviously she will look to be more impactful.
“And number three, to keep working on that serve; to keep making sure she’s getting the maximum out of it. Everyone wants to talk about the fact that it can be better but there will be a limit on it just because of how tall she is.
“All she can do is keep working on it and make it the best that it can become subject to the natural restrictions of physics and geometry.”
