He or she needs to be one of the world’s best, or Emma will show you the exit door. The hunt for a coach continues for Emma Raducanu as she recently split from her new coach Vladimir Platenik, after a two-week unsuccessful trial.
Platenik was given two weeks to work his magic and prove himself ahead of the Indian Wells, but things went south when Emma got eliminated in the first round after suffering a defeat against Moyuka Uchijima by 6-3, 6-2.
After a 14-month partnership, Nick Cavaday stepped down as Raducanu’s coach in January because he wanted to prioritise his health and spend more time at home.
Before making her breakthrough at Wimbledon in 2021, she was coached by Nigel Sears. Raducanu also had trials with Torben Beltz, Dmitry Tursunov, and Sebastian Sachs after splitting with Andrew Richardson.
Emma is currently performing very well as she managed to make it to the quarterfinals of the Miami Open, but Jessica Pegula ended her winning streak on Wednesday after a tough 6-4 6-7 (3-7) 6-2 victory.
Tennis legend Martina Navratilova, speaking to Sky Sports, advised that Emma should sort out her coaching issue as she has the potential to make it to the world’s top 30.
“If she stays healthy and plays this well, then she’ll be seeded at Roland Garros. I think she’ll move up the ranking well enough into the top 30. The biggest question mark is her health.
“Hopefully she can sort out her coaching situation because she’s been in a state of flux, but I think she needs to commit to somebody and stay with them for a little bit, see how that works,” said Navratilova
Platenik was due to coach Raducanu until the French Open at the end of May. He had previously worked with tennis stars like Daria Kasatkina and Dominika Cibulkova.
As the 22-year-old continues to search for her eight coach, she seems to be relaxed and confident about her A-game as she told the media after her quarterfinals exit that she is positive and is playing good tennis.
“I’m proud of how I fought, I competed well throughout the match. Jessica played a 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 to it now. It wasn’t easy and I played some good tennis to get here, so it was nice to just have that feeling of playing pretty well again.
