Emma Raducanu has spoken about it before, but never in quite such stark terms.
In an interview this week, the 22-year-old said how she had been “burnt quite a lot of times” in the aftermath of her 2021 US Open victory, and it has left her with a mistrust of new people and a reluctance to offer too much of herself to them.
It will shape her coming weeks and months as she tries to solve what has so far been the unsolvable problem, that of a regular coaching set-up.
“I haven’t really opened up to many people in my life, truly, but the ones that I really trust, I do,” Raducanu told the Guardian.
“And the thing is with me, once I let someone in, I let them in fully and I care for them so much, and I have been burnt a few times.
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“A few people who I’ve really trusted have surprised me, but I guess that’s life, and I still have some great people around me who I really trust, and I’m working on it.”
From a tennis perspective, this means settling on a group of people that she works with on a day-to-day basis. The Raducanu roundabout of coaches seemed to have slowed down last year when Nick Cavaday, a former childhood coach, spent the entire season on tour with her, only to part ways in January, the 38-year-old citing health issues.
Since then Raducanu has had a two-week trial with Vladimir Platenik, a temporary reunion with Roman Kelecic (another past coach) and most recently a period working with Tennis Channel commentator Mark Petchey.
Reading between the lines, Platenik can be regarded as one of those to have broken Raducanu’s trust, telling a newspaper in his native Slovakia shortly after coming on board that he previously regarded the job as “coaching suicide”.
Petchey has been quite the opposite. The work which the former British No 1 did on Raducanu’s forehand in 2020 is seen in some tennis circles as having been crucial to her breakout year 12 months later – but Petchey has never overtly pushed himself forward as such a crucial cog.
Petchey (right) and O’Donoghue have become Raducanu’s regular coaching double act (Photo: Getty)It makes him a trusted confidant, alongside whom Jane O’Donoghue, seen by Raducanu as a kind of big sister, works. O’Donoghue has known the Raducanu family longer than perhaps any of her other coaches.
The comfort of familiarity in tennis is something we have seen before. Andy Murray had a number of different coaches, but the same faces kept popping up: Ivan Lendl’s avuncular role was reprised three times in the Murray camp, although he rarely said much and was a totem for the Scot’s success as much as anything else; Leon Smith officially coached Murray from the age of 11 to 17 but was regularly seen in his box throughout his senior career; Jamie Delgado was a Davis Cup team-mate and close friend first but then became one of Murray’s coaches in 2016.
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Latterly, Louis Cayer, Jonny O’Mara and Mark Hilton jumped in to help: Cayer was hired by the LTA over a decade ago on the recommendation of Andy’s mother Judy; O’Mara was a regular dining and hitting partner on tour; and Hilton coached Murray’s Davis Cup team-mate Dan Evans.
Jack Draper, Murray’s protege, reached the Madrid final on Sunday with his mother, brother and agent Ben, and coach of nearly a decade James Trotman.
It’s not a British trait necessarily either: Carlos Alcaraz has his brother travel as a hitting partner, and his coach is Juan Carlos Ferrero, a man he has often referred to as “a second father”, having known him from the age of 12.
And the truth is it has worked for all three of those men, and can for Raducanu too. Her greatest moment came with childhood coach Andrew Richardson, now seemingly out of favour, in the box and as someone whose game is often influenced by her mood, it’s right to regard a settled emotional environment off court in the same way as a strong tactical gameplan: essential.
In that sense, her current set-up has risks.
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“It can’t last if she starts losing matches and Petchey is in the commentary box. That’s not going to work,” former British No 1 Dan Evans told the BBC.
“I think Emma will be looking for a new coach again pretty soon if she starts to lose some matches on the grass into the US swing. I’m not sure how that can last as it is.”
But Raducanu is not in a hurry to find a new old face.
However, Evans is right that Petchey has a busy summer ahead and will struggle to juggle all his commitments, while O’Donoghue’s current sabbatical from her job in finance cannot last forever.
“He [Petchey] is going to help me as much as he can and hopefully the times align that he can be there with me in the matches,” Raducanu said.
“That’s why Jane is here for when he’s not able to make it to the session.
“While she’s not working it’s nice to have her as much as possible, but she will go back to work and then I need to figure another solution out.
“I just need to work on who that person is.”
If we have learned anything about Emma Raducanu, it is that the next person is unlikely to be a total stranger.
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