'I don’t understand that move' - John McEnroe questions Emma Raducanu's coaching choices after French Open loss
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Published 25/05/2022 at 17:51 GMT
Emma Raducanu will now shift her focus to the grass after crashing out of the French Open at the second-round stage. Following the loss to Aliaksandra Sasnovich, John McEnroe said it was a mistake the British teenager to change coaches after her US Open win last year. Stream the 2022 French Open live and on-demand on discovery+
Highlights: Raducanu sees French Open campaign ended by Sasnovich
John McEnroe feels Emma Raducanu made a mistake by switching coaches following her US Open win, but believes time is still on the teenager’s side.
Raducanu stunned the tennis world when coming through qualifying to win the US Open last year.
She did that under the gaze of Andrew Richardson, but she split with her coach shortly after her epic win at Flushing Meadows.
The 2022 season has not gone as envisaged, with early exits in a string of events.
Raducanu went through a number of coaches, and arrived at the French Open without a coach - electing instead to travel to Paris with only a hitting partner.
The 19-year-old told Eurosport before the start of the tournament that she was happy with her choices and felt there had been positive signs.
But her involvement in the tournament ended in the second round, as Aliaksandra Sasnovich claimed a three-set win.
Raducanu will now shift focus to the grass courts, and McEnroe hopes she can find some stability in her camp.
“She has changed coaches three, four or five times which is unbelievable for someone who has just come off winning a major,” McEnroe said in the Eurosport studio.
"I think movement is an issue for her, obviously experience, she is still very young.
“She has sort of put herself in a difficult position because a lot is expected of her and with the people around her, we are not sure if she is comfortable with them just yet. Hopefully in the next year or two she will find that.
Honestly, if I won the US Open having gone through qualifying, I wouldn’t change my coach at least for the next year, so I don’t understand that move.
“Obviously her parents are involved and they know more than I know. But this idea of a revolving door of coaches I just don’t think that’s good for any player, much less so for a player at this stage of her career.
“We have to wait and see and hopefully she finds someone she can stick with for a while."
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'Her game has evolved and her skills are enormous' - Henman on Raducanu at French Open
Henman: Raducanu game has 'evolved' ahead of grass season
Tim Henman felt Raducanu could take positives into the summer grass season.
"Emma Raducanu made a good start today but perhaps was not quite able to maintain the levels physically – Sasnovich deserves a lot of credit,” Henman said in his role as a pundit for Eurosport at the French Open. “She played some good tennis – there was that third game in the final set when Raducanu had five break points but wasn’t able to take it.
“When you reflect on the clay-court season, Raducanu came in with few expectations and I think her game has evolved.
“Her tennis skills are enormous, she just needs to build more of a physical platform and that is not easy to do when you are in the middle of a tournament.
"Emma will take a lot of positives from the clay-court season, she is coming back home to play on grass, a surface she is very familiar with and I am sure there will be a lot of good results to follow."
McEnroe added that expectation around Raducanu needs to be reined in, given she is in the fledgling stage of her career.
"We have got to keep a little perspective here,” McEnroe said. “At Wimbledon last year she was unable to finish a match because of stress and it got to be too much for her.
“Then she came out and did something that no one has ever done – man or woman – in 150 years of tennis, coming from the qualifying and winning (the US Open).
“All of a sudden, there is this pressure on her, this expectation, that has gotten a little bit overwhelming as well.”
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