EMMA RADUCANU’S former coach Vlado Platenik believes that “stress and pressure” played a major role in their recent split.
The former U.S. Open champion, 22, began working with Platenik ahead of Indian Wells earlier this month.
On the eve of the Miami Open, however, it was announced that the partnership had come to a premature end after just one match.
Raducanu has endured a difficult year to date.
After reaching the Australian Open third round, the British star went on a four-match losing streak.
Having broken her duck against Maria Sakkari in Dubai, Raducanu’s subsequent second round defeat to Karolina Muchova was overshadowed by her stalker ordeal, when a “fixated man” had to be removed from the stands.
Following his split with Raducanu, Platenik told the BBC: “I totally understand Emma, she’s not in an easy position.
“The world is looking at her after the U.S. Open and everybody is expecting – including herself – what she is going to do next.
“So for me it’s absolutely understandable that she’s under a lot of pressure. She told me she was feeling stressed.
“There are no hard feelings from my side. She finished the relationship in a fair way, maybe too quickly, but this is tennis, this is sport. We need to respect that.
“She was not feeling OK, and that was her decision. I didn’t want to go into deeper communication about that. I think the player needs to feel good, and the player needs to make a decision. Sometimes you make a good decision, and sometimes bad.”
Raducanu lost 6-3 6-2 to Moyuka Uchijima in her Indian Wells first round, in what went on to be Platenik’s only match in her player box.
The world No.60 has bounced back in Dubai, however, beating Sayaka Ishii and eighth seed Emma Navarro to reach round three.
Platenik, 49, had anticipated being in Raducanu’s camp until Roland Garros, and believes that the work they put in together is already starting to show.
The Slovakian added: “We had a good discussion, the communication was good from her side. I was very happy because I really must say that I never had a player improving that fast – in eight, nine days.
“She was getting a lot of things very fast. And I think it also showed in the first round.
“She was playing very correct, technically and tactically – exactly what we were practising, so I’m happy and I hope that she could take something out of my help.”
Raducanu, whose previous coach Nick Cavaday stepped away for health reasons earlier this year, will now look for the eighth coach of her career.
In the meantime, the British No.2 will take on American McCartney Kessler in round three of the Miami Open later today.
Following her round two win over Navarro, the first triumph over a top 10 player of her year, Raducanu said: “In the third set I used a lot of emotion.
“I’ve gone through a lot and I just told myself: ‘You’ve gone through too much to kind of just like, leave it, leave it to her, you know’.
“So I was just fighting every single point like my life depended on it and that was pretty powerful.”
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