“She needs the right quarterback that understands the mental game and bulletproof confidence.” Serena Williams’ childhood coach, Rick Macci, expressed his honest thoughts on Emma Raducanu’s coaching woes two months ago. Following a return after an injury-ridden 2024 season, the Brit has struggled in most events of 2025 so far. In five back-to-back WTA appearances, following a third-round exit in the Australian Open, she was ousted in the opening rounds. Fortunately, she found the right assistance last month, in a familiar figure who guided her to a QF run in Miami. That happens to be Andy Murray’s ex-coach. And he might just be the right option for the 22-year-old, according to former World No.1 Andy Roddick. But Roddick is also concerned for the future of this rumored partnership.

For the uninitiated, Raducanu’s former coach Nick Cavaday left her team over two months ago. His decision came after Raducanu lost to Iga Swiatek in the third round of the Australian Open. Citing personal reasons, Cavaday revealed, “At this moment in time, it’s important for me to spend some more time at home and prioritize getting back to full health, which is hard to do with the extensive calendar. I am glad Emma is back to being established on tour now with a ranking inside the top 60, and I look forward to seeing what she does from here.”

Raducanu then opted to have Slovakian Vlado Platenik as her interim coach for Indian Wells. But she couldn’t perform as per expectations and crashed out in the first round after a loss to Japan’s Moyuka Uchijima. The partnership of Platenik and Raducanu lasted for just two weeks.

The Brit has now brought back familiar faces in the camp, on a temporary basis. Her longtime confidante and coach, Jane O’Donoghue, and former ATP pro Mark Petchey are currently there with Raducanu. Speaking of Petchey, he’s a former British pro and also Andy Murray’s ex-trainer. And he may have played a crucial role in getting the best out of Raducanu in the last few weeks. Under his tutelage, she looked in sensational form at the Miami Open, before losing out to Jessica Pegula in R8.

With that run, Raducanu finally broke into the top 50 as well. Lately, it’s been rumored that Petchey might become her new, permanent coach. And ex-ATP pro Roddick is happy about this potential collaboration.

In an episode of his Served podcast, dated April 15, he said, “I love Petchey. By the way, he was there in that role.” Continuing further he added, “He (Petchey) was mixing it in with Tennis Channel and they were, you know, letting him work with, not letting him, accommodating his commentary schedule based around working with Emma in Miami, had great results. Like she looked great. She looked like a top 10 player in Miami.”

Roddick also emphasized Petchey’s positive influence over Raducanu. “I love the fit. Petchey seems to, you know, I remember watching that I was watching the coverage and I could see, you know, in Miami, you can see like big field with people and it was 10 minutes before she was going on and they were playing this bouncy, you know, bouncy ball thing where you have like the trampoline thing and you’re bouncing it off of. She was laughing, looked relaxed. I’m like, oh, that looks very, very, very comfortable. Love Mark Petchey. I think he has a great tennis brain.”

The 2003 US Open winner further weighed in on the possibility of Raducanu’s partnership with Petchey. He thinks Petchey is the best for her “because I got to think if you’re, it’s hard to enter into a new agreement, give up whatever you have to do, whatever else you have going on in life, knowing that this could be a two week situation. Mark obviously knows the deal. He’s, you know, I think there’s a longer term relationship.”

While he is “fully supportive” of this collaboration, Roddick’s also got some concerns. Referring to Raducanu’s tendency to switch coaches, he said, “I think you’re actually narrowing the pool of coaching talent just by virtue of you having this quick trigger on firing people.”

Since her US Open triumph in 2021, Raducanu has changed coaches quite frequently. In total, she has had seven coaches in the span of last three years. The Brit has worked with Nigel Sears, Andrew Richardson (her trainer during the victorious US Open campaign), Torben Beltz, Dmitry Tursunov, and Sebastian Sachs. And this season, she has already worked with Cavaday and Platenik so far.

Currently, there is no official update from Raducanu on her next coach. So we don’t know if Petchey will join her on a long-term basis. However, the Brit did come up with some unexpected news a few days back. Despite regaining her form at the Miami Open, it seems she’s feeling the heat of a hectic tennis season already. And now she’s decided to take a break.

Emma Raducanu opts to take a brief break from tennis action

At the Miami Open, Emma Raducanu showed glimpses of her old self. Even in the quarterfinal against Pegula, which she lost eventually, she was solid. Especially in the second set, where she took a 5-2 lead at one point. But she also had to take a medical time out (MTO) due to dizziness. It was a result of rising temperatures and a long wait between games. “I just felt really dizzy (before medical timeout). I felt faint. It was very humid out there, and we had a long wait, so maybe it was just an accumulation,” she said during the post-match conference.

Despite losing against Pegula, though, Raducanu was happy with her performance in Miami. “I’m really proud of how I fought, I competed well throughout the match. Jessica played a really good match from start to finish and just showed her class and levels at the end, I think. Despite losing today, I can take some good positives from this week and look forward now,” she added.

But just when it seemed she would continue to play, she came up with a surprising announcement. She pulled out of Great Britain’s squad for the Billie Jean King Cup qualifying stage last week. The 22-year-old’s spokesperson mentioned that it was a  “difficult decision.” The statement further added that “she needs a little space in the calendar to best look after her body.” Also, she decided not to appear in this week’s Rouen Open clay-court event.

The current break will surely allow Raducanu to prepare in the best way possible, especially for next month’s French Open in Paris. While it’s not yet confirmed, the Brit is expected to return to action this month itself. Her name’s still there on the entry list of the Madrid Open clay tournament. It will kick off on April 22. What are your thoughts on Raducanu’s prospects going forward this season? Let us know in the comments below.