Patrick Mouratoglou, the former coach of Serena Williams, has called on former US Open champion Emma Raducanu to find stability and trust the project in order to achieve her potential. The former British No 1 made history when she won the US Open as a qualifier over two years ago but coaching instability and injuries have hampered her progress since that fairy-tale run in New York.
Raducanu, 21, has missed most of this season due to injury, and went under the knife on her wrists and her ankle earlier this year having played just a handful of matches. With her ranking having dipped from No 10 in July 2022 down to her current standing at world No 298 Raducanu will be hoping for a more prosperous 2024 as she prepares to make her anticipated comeback at the WTA 250 tournament in Auckland, which could serve as a warm-up event for the 2024 Australian Open.
“I know that Raducanu is coming back which is great news for British tennis,” Mouratoglou told Sky Sports.
“She has suffered a lot both in her tennis, in her results and after that with injuries but I hope she can find some stability around her because without stability she’s not going to be able to achieve her potential and that would be sad. “Let’s hope that she can stay injury free at the start of the season and that she can find someone who can help her fall in love with the game and tennis again for her future.”
Mouratoglou, who is the mastermind behind the innovative Ultimate Tennis Showdown, coached the legendary Williams for 10 years from 2012-2022, but would he ever accept a role in Raducanu’s team? “I don’t know,” he said. “I haven’t thought about it but all I can say is is she ready to trust someone? “Can she trust a project and to follow that project for long enough to be able to make real progress that she needs to do in order to achieve her potential? “What hurt her so much is all those changes because you cannot change your tennis project every three months, it doesn’t make sense.”
Raducanu split from Sebastian Sachs in the summer, the fifth coach who has come and gone since her emergence at Wimbledon two years ago. And Frenchman Mouratoglou has been critical of Raducanu, who has come under fire for the rapid succession of coaches she has worked with.
“I understand it’s not easy to trust someone but that’s also what makes the careers of players. They have the ability to stick to people that they believe in, to a project they believe in and not change whenever there is anything wrong because it’s a marathon,” he said. “You have to accept that during a marathon you have ups and downs and every time you have a little down you get rid of the people, you can’t reach the finish line in one day.”
