- Raducanu is enjoying life at Wimbledon having reached second round with ease
- She has been helped on and off court by coach Mark Petchey, offering stability
- Jane O’Donoghue, the tennis coach-turned financier, has also been present
With a coach she trusts implicitly and her best friends watching on from the stands, Emma Raducanu is in her happy place here at the All England Club.
‘It’s special at Wimbledon,’ said Raducanu, who beat Swansea teenager Mimi Xu on opening day to set up a second-round clash with 2023 champion Marketa Vondrousova.
‘I had really good friends in the box there’ she said, reeling off a list of names. ‘They’re so busy with their work and study, so the way the stars aligned that they could all be here this week, it means so much when I see them there. It just makes me really happy.’
Also in the box was coach Mark Petchey, with whom Raducanu has been working since the Miami Open in March. The 54-year-old is fitting in coaching around his commentating commitments and that has not always been an easy balance to strike, but he has no punditry work during the grass season and that gives Raducanu vital – if temporary – stability.
Asked how she would rate Petchey out of 10 in their work so far, Raducanu replied: ‘I’d give him 11 out of 10. He’s been everything the last few months for me. I’ve really enjoyed being around him. He’s helped me so much on all fronts: tennis and off-court.
‘The most memorable moment… we’ve had quite a few. There was one hike we did in L.A. We walked for, like, two and a half hours. We spoke. It was one of those really, I guess, like, deep conversations where I was like, OK, certain things I need to do better. It was just one that I could take away and really reflect on.’
Completing team Raducanu is Jane O’Donoghue, the tennis coach-turned financier. O’Donoghue, who was one of Raducanu’s earliest coaches, has done periodic stints on tour but has been almost ever-present this season as she is on a sabbatical from the Royal Bank of Canada.
‘She’s a great friend,’ said Raducanu. ‘She just brings a lot of support, someone who knows me inside out, better than I know myself. So just to have her there, her belief and confidence in me, it means a lot. I love seeing her there in the box.’
As big as O’Donoghue’s influence is, Raducanu is resisting the urge to try to tempt her away from her day job.
‘She’s doing so well in her career,’ said Raducanu. ‘It would be a very big ask for me and I’m not sure if that’s something that I want to do because we have a great friendship. It is different when you mix friendship with having someone on your team full-time. So I really want to protect our relationship.’
Raducanu has a tough assignment against Vondrousova, not just a former champion here but a winner on the grass of Berlin earlier this month. But in the tough moments and the tight corners, the 22-year-old can look to her box and see a row of faces she can trust.
Given her coaching team has at times operated with a revolving door, that is something Raducanu will not take for granted.
