'Raducanu needs lasting plan to build on Miami progress'

Emma Raducanu will move back into the world's top 50 following her Miami Open run

Emma Raducanu is starting to play like it is 2021.

The Briton, who won 10 matches in straight sets to clinch the US Open title, had not been able to win more than three in a row until this week’s Miami Open.

Her run was ended by world number four Jessica Pegula in the quarter-finals, but on Monday Raducanu will return to the world’s top 50 for the first time since September 2022.

Success has come despite a constantly changing sea of faces in the coaching box and a typically challenging start to the year.

The 22-year-old has not had a full-time coach since January, but played with great freedom in Miami.

So what kind of support might Raducanu need to be able to produce form like this on a more consistent basis?

After the early promise of two Australian Open wins against higher-ranked opponents, Raducanu lost heavily to Iga Swiatek in January before coach Nick Cavaday informed her his health would prevent him from continuing.

February's spell in the Middle East ended in distressing fashion, as a man who had been following Raducanu around the circuit was evicted from her second-round match and given a restraining order.

Raducanu appeared rudderless for much of that period, although she was rarely short of support. Her strength and conditioning coach Yutaka Nakamura has barely left her side since starting in early December.

Roman Kelecic, a coach from her teenage days, helped out in Abu Dhabi. Jane O'Donoghue, a friend and former LTA coach, was in Doha and Dubai. Tom Welsh was drafted in from the Loughborough Academy as a short-term hire for Indian Wells, only for Vladimir Platenik to usurp him by arriving in California for a hastily arranged trial.

After only two weeks that trial was ended by Raducanu on the eve of her first-round victory in Miami - and a seat offered once again to O’Donoghue and the broadcaster and coach Mark Petchey.

Petchey coached an 18-year-old Andy Murray for 10 months - during which he won his first ATP title - and trained with Raducanu during the pandemic summer of 2020.

Those weeks at the National Tennis Centre in London appear to have left quite an impression on Raducanu. There is a mutual respect and rapport between the two.

O'Donoghue has been a regular confidante for Raducanu, and was the LTA’s national women’s coach until 2019, when she left the sport for pastures new.

Raducanu trusts them and is able to relax in their company, but they both have day jobs.

Petchey is in broadcasting - most notably with the Tennis Channel - and O’Donoghue in finance. She is currently on a sabbatical, but there is no suggestion she wants to return to the far less secure world of tennis coaching on a permanent basis.

Both could offer input but, as things stand, not the type of support Raducanu said she was seeking when speaking to the BBC at Indian Wells.

"Once I have a structure in place and I can fall back on the process again I will feel very set," she said this month.

"In the Middle East it was very difficult for me because I didn't really have any direction or structure or which tournaments to play and it was very difficult doing it all on my own.

"I'm that kind of person who needs a plan and needs preparation. That's what I'm building and that's making me feel more comfortable."

Jane O'Donoghue (left) was with Emma Raducanu in Miami

Raducanu is part of the Great Britain team which will compete in the Billie Jean King Cup qualifying round in early April, and will be able to spend the next two weeks working with the LTA coaching team.

But she will need a more lasting plan swiftly.

Her clay-court season could take in Stuttgart, Madrid and Rome before the French Open, and there will be very little respite in the schedule before the end of October.

That plan does not need to revolve around one person.

Many top players employ more than one coach, usually because it is very hard for any one individual to commit to more than 30 weeks on the road each year.

Jack Draper ended last summer’s partnership with Wayne Ferreira as he preferred the "one voice" of James Trotman, but now travels to some events with Alex Ward.

Perhaps things could have worked out differently with Cavaday if an additional coach had been brought into the team when his health problems first arose in the spring of 2024.

Exposure to different personalities and ways of thinking has always been appealing to Raducanu, but the period with Cavaday offered her stability and calmness.

They liked each other, having first established a coaching partnership when Raducanu was a girl. Cavaday was a good sounding board, and there was evidence from her play last spring and summer that the two could flourish in future.

Other partnerships fizzled out much more quickly.

Platenik lasted only two weeks. His coaching acumen is widely admired, but his personality did not seem a good match for Raducanu.

One former player compared him to a "freight train", saying he was intense and opinionated. Platenik says Raducanu told him she was feeling “stressed” when ending the brief collaboration.

Torben Beltz looked an excellent choice, given his Grand Slam success with Angelique Kerber, but Raducanu did not feel he had enough to offer.

Dmitry Tursunov ended their partnership because he thought Raducanu needed to listen to just "one voice". He referred to "red flags" and a feeling there may be further problems down the line.

Her spell with Sebastian Sachs concluded after operations on both hands and left ankle, which kept her on the sidelines for the second half of 2023.

There did not seem much logic in dispensing of the services of Nigel Sears after Wimbledon 2021, but it is hard to argue with the choice of Andrew Richardson, who then steered her to that historic triumph at the US Open.

However, that partnership ended there.

Would Raducanu go back to a coach she has previously let go? Sears still looks a good bet and has a proven track record of success with Daniela Hantuchova, Ana Ivanovic and Anett Kontaveit.

He is no longer working with the Australian Olivia Gadecki, and is a regular at the National Tennis Centre in London, where he works with the LTA's women's team.

For all her progress in Miami, Raducanu may have a difficult spring and summer without the right personnel around her.

Does she ever throws a covetous glance at Draper's set-up?

His team looks a thoroughly professional outfit, and some hard decisions have recently been made.

Physio Will Herbert and strength and conditioning coach Steve Kotze are no longer involved. They have been replaced by Shane Annun and Matt Little, who were so integral to Andy Murray's team.

And Trotman remains as head coach. He has been working full-time with the new Indian Wells champion since the end of 2021, in which time Draper has risen from outside the top 250 and into the world's top 10.