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In an interview with the Guardian, Emma Raducanu talked about managing her academics in tandem with her tennis career. The former US Open champion took a month off after impressing at the Miami Open in March. She said that she needed to "look after my body" (as per Skynews.com) and seek a new coach after parting with short-term trainer Vladimir Platenik.
Raducanu has teamed up, albeit temporarily, with Mark Petchey ahead of this week's Italian Open. She returned to competition in Madrid, her first clay-court outing of the year, but was beaten in three sets by Marta Kostyuk in the second round.
Since she burst onto the scene and won the US Open in 2021 as an 18-year-old, Raducanu has suffered a succession of injuries and has had to deal with several off-court issues, including continuous changes to her support team. Now ranked 49 in the WTA, it is fair to say that Raducanu has yet to realize the potential she showed at Flushing Meadows three and a half years ago.
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In her interview, Emma Raducanu talked about the pressures of being a top professional tennis player and how she attempted to reduce that pressure. She said:
"Whether I will take my third A-level and go into a degree, I’m not sure. But I feel like I need some sort of pressure and adrenaline in that sense of my life."
Raducanu saw education as a way of removing herself from the pressures of tennis, and also viewed her tennis as an escape from her studies:
I think it’ll be a good escape because, growing up, I always had tennis as an escape from studying and studying as an escape from tennis."
Raducanu also highlighted her identity as a tennis player. The young Englishwoman has been in the media spotlight since winning her first Major, and said that she needed something other than tennis to feel like a fully rounded individual:
"So it wasn’t just my entire life and my entire personality being dependent on this one thing."
Mark Petchey is working with Emma Raducanu in Italy. He coached Andy Murray when the Scottish player first broke into the World's Top 50.
Emma Raducanu had an excellent Miami Open, signalling a return to her best tennis
Emma Raducanu conquered eighth seed Emma Navarro and 17th seed Amanda Anisimova to reach the 2025 Miami Open quarterfinals. However, she lost to eventual finalist Jessica Pegula. Along the way, she also outplayed the up-and-coming American McCartney Kessler, who retired at 0-3 in the second set but only after Raducanu had thoroughly dominated the match.
In Miami, Raducanu bumped into Petchey and asked him to join her team. She told the Guardian that Petchey was reluctant at first, but still agreed to help her:
“Mark was already there, commentating, and it happened that I bumped into him in one of the corridors in Miami and the Dolphins’ stadium. “He’s someone that I trust. So we were just talking. And then I was like: ‘I need to do this. And he said ‘I can help you around the commitments and stuff.’ That’s how it started. Ran into each other in the corridor.”
Emma Raducanu begins her assault in the Italian Open today. The 22-year-old will play Australian Maya Joint in the first round.
