Emma Raducanu’s ‘priorities in right place’ as former world No 1 reveals what she needs to add to her game
Chris Evert believes the pieces of the puzzle are starting to fall into place for Emma Raducanu with her new coach Mark Petchey by her side, although there are some areas where the Brit needs to improve.
After a couple of difficult years as poor form and injuries took its toll, Raducanu is on the verge of a return to the top 30 of the WTA Rankings following some impressive wins in recent months.
She defeated eighth seed Emma Navarro en route to reaching the quarter-final of the Miami Open – her best run at a WTA 1000 tournament – and also made it to the fourth round of the Madrid Open.
There is no doubt that Petchey – who joined her team in March – has had a big impact with 18-time Grand Slam winner Evert saying she has the key attributes of an excellent tennis player.
“I think she’s playing better with Mark Petchey. I think he’s very knowledgeable, how can he not be?” the American told Express Sport.
“But I think I’ve seen some good matches from Emma. I think she seems to have the mental part of the game and the emotional part of the game. She seems to have that.
“She seems to be more settled, and she seems to really know what her goals are and she seems to know what she needs to work on and what her strengths and weaknesses are. She has a very good awareness of her game, and she knows what to do.”
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Raducanu, of course, took the tennis world by storm when she won the 2021 US Open as a qualifier – winning 10 matches in a row without dropping a set – and she rose to No 10 in the WTA Rankings on the back of that historic run.
But after those highs came the lows in 2022 and 2023 as she not only struggled to put together a decent run of form, but also underwent surgery on both her wrists and one ankle.
The 2024 season was a difficult one, but it all seems to be clicking after she was initially “thrown off course” by that sudden success, according to Evert.
“She’s a young lady that has been injured so many times. I just feel so bad for these players that just keep getting out of the game. They start to play really well and then they get injured and it’s got to take its toll on you,” the former world No 1 said.
“But I think she’s showing some good signs, showing some promise, and when I look at it, when I watch her matches, you can see it in her eyes that she’s 100 per cent committed this time around.
“She’s 100 per cent committed, and this is truly what she loves to do. You can see the love that she has for the game.
“And, look, it wasn’t easy after she won the US Open. Her whole life changed. Especially because she had never experienced fame before, not experienced fortune before, not experienced that much attention, and I think it just threw her off there for a while.”
So where does she go from here?
Evert added: “Her priorities are in the right place right now. So she should just keep fighting and keep trying to improve her game, adding a little bit more power, coming into the net, just working a little bit harder, and I think she’s going to even be a better player than she is now.”
