Emma Raducanu gives Mark Petchey coach update as Indian Wells thrashing ‘not easy to take’ | Tennis | Sport

Raducanu is currently without a full-time coach and is not actively looking for one. She leaned on her old mentor, Petchey, in Indian Wells, as he was already there in his role as a Tennis Channel commentator. But he will stay in the Californian desert to continue his broadcasting commitments, while Raducanu must look ahead to the upcoming Miami Open.

“Mark helped me out a lot this week and it was nice to be on court with him again,” the world No. 24 told Sky Sports after her brutal loss to Anisimova. “But he will be commentating for Tennis Channel this week, probably until the end, so I don’t know how much time I will get with him before Miami.”

While Raducanu may not get much time on court with Petchey before the next WTA 1000 event in Miami begins next week, she knows she has plenty to work on after her defeat to Anisimova, admitting it wasn’t “easy to take”.

The British No. 1 explained: “It was difficult to come close to putting my stamp on the match. That goes with playing Amanda – she is that sort of opponent who likes to put her stamp on it first.

“I have to take some positives. The first match here was better than a lot of matches I have been playing recently. I had a great first match, felt in a really good place with my game. But a match like that is never easy to take. I couldn’t really get into the rally. The ball felt very quick to do anything off of and to try and survive in the point was very difficult.”

Raducanu has earned some scalps in her career, beating current and former top-10 players Jessica Pegula, Emma Navarro, and Maria Sakkari. But she has consistently fallen short against players at the upper echelons of the game and knows something must change.

“If I’m not feeling it, that gap feels more evident in terms of weight of shot, in terms of power. You just feel a little bit behind and your punches aren’t landing as much as theirs are. I need to be aggressive when playing those players, but I think there’s still a long way to go to be doing that,” she said.

There will be some extra pressure on the Brit’s shoulders in Miami next week, as she is defending 215 of her 1,645 ranking points after reaching the quarter-finals there 12 months ago. Lose any earlier and her ranking could take a hit.