Emma Raducanu leaves the court
Emma Raducanu is preparing to kick-start her clay court campaign for 205 and she could have a new coach alongside her when she steps onto the red clay.
The 2021 US Open champion is scheduled to play at the Madrid Open later this month, with Mark Petchey rumoured to be weighing up an offer to take over as her coach.
Petchey worked briefly with Raducanu before her famous Grand Slam win in New York and he also stepped into her camp for the Miami Open, after she parted company with Vlado Platenik shortly before her opening match in the WTA 1000 tournament.
Petchey’s influence certainly appeared to have a positive impact, with Raducanu playing her best tennis since her US Open win as she made it through to the quarter-finals in a run that included wins against top ten player Emma Navarro and recent WTA 1000 tournament winner Amanda Anisimova.
Now opportunity is about to knock for Raducanu, as she is entering a period of the season that gives her a huge chance to make a big rankings leap.
By the time she returns to action, Raducanu will have just 10 ranking point to defend over the rest of the clay court season.
If she plays at the Madrid Open and the Italian Open, that will offer her a chance to compete for 2,000 ranking points.
That same haul of points will be on offer at the French Open and any wins at Roland Garros will be extra points added to her current total as she failed to play at the second major of the year in 2024.
Raducanu would need to be in the top 32 of the WTA Rankings to be seeded for the French Open and she will not need to many wins on clay to make that happen.
A couple of victories in Madrid would propel her up towards the top 40 of the rankings and two more wins in Rome would take her close to that rankings goal.
If she could string together three wins in both events, she would be knocking on the door of a seeding for Roland Garros.
Raducanu’s uncertainty on clay courts may make the ambition of being seeded for the French Open a little ambitious, but she could have a better chance of being among the seeds when she gets onto grass courts at Wimbledon.
Two or three wins at the French Open would give Raducanu a boost in her ranking and if she is among the top 32 seeds at the All England Club in July, she will be a threat to have a long run once again.
Raducanu has made it through to the last-16 at Wimbledon on two occasions and had a big chance to go further last year as she blew her chance to make it through to the quarter-finals with a disappointing defeat against Lulu Sun.
Raducanu struggled to kick on after that Wimbledon run last July, but the mood around her is very different after those sparkling wins in Miami.
If Petchey is added to Raducanu’s team and she can steer clear of injuries over the next few weeks, there is every reason to believe a player who had been written off by too many of her critics could be a big contender on the WTA Tour in the second half of this year.
