EMMA RADUCANU’S former coach insists she is pulling out all the stops to dominate tennis after “living her career in reverse.”
Raducanu shot to fame when she won the US Open aged just 18.
It saw her become the first qualifier in the Open era to win a singles major title.
And Raducanu’s win earned her a host of lucrative endorsements while also ensuring her place as a household name.
But the British No1 has since struggled to live up to her past billing.
The 22-year-old has suffered several debilitating injuries.
While Raducanu has also parted ways with numerous coaches in her bid to become the world’s best.
Her latest struggles saw her and rumoured love interest Carlos Alcaraz crash out of the $1million US Open mixed doubles in the last 16 on Tuesday.
But Raducanu’s former coach Mark Petchey insists the Brit is doing everything in her power to climb back to the top.
He believes that winning the US Open at such a young age has actually made her career harder.
And Petchey has urged fans to keep the faith as he believes Raducanu is hungrier than ever to succeed.
He told OLBG: “Coaching Emma was awesome. From my perspective, I hope people can really understand how much she loves tennis.
“She’s totally invested in it. She watches it all the time. She practices as hard as anyone I know and has spent more time on the court, or as much time on the court, as everybody else. And obviously she’s living a very different life.
“She’s living a lot of her career in reverse and that’s not been easy. Having set the bar so high so early on in your career every week you are measured not just by other people’s expectations but also your own expectations.
“That is a good thing because it drives you to be as good as you can be.
“But on the other hand, it’s difficult, because at times it can feel like you’re not hitting the standard you want to because that’s where your bar is at.
“From that perspective, her work ethic and her desire to be able to do what she did back in 2021 is as great as I remember it in 2020 when I first had a chance to work with her.”
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