FIGHTING back the tears, Emma Raducanu said she will hold showdown talks with coach Mark Petchey about their future working arrangement.
But she claims she will head next month to New York – the scene of her greatest triumph – brimming with confidence she CAN match the world’s best.
Raducanu, 22, ate a KitKat chocolate bar in the locker room after her two-hour two-set slugfest with world No1 Aryna Sabalenka on Friday night.
For those who had doubted whether the Brit would ever replicate the magical form she showed when lifting the US Open four years ago, this was a demonstration of her abilities.
Though she fell short, and was unable to capitalise on two clutch moments in set two, she earned widespread respect for slugging it out with the three-time Grand Slam champion on Centre Court.
Petchey, who joined her team on a part-time basis in March, has had a transformative impact on her form and demeanour but there is no guarantee that coaching gig will continue.
The former tennis player earns a decent living as a respected TV analyst but has to decide now whether to give that all up to sit in Raducanu’s box.
Raducanu said: “It’s very difficult. He obviously also has his commentating commitments.
“He agreed to help me until the end of Wimbledon and then we kind of see from there.
“Because he gave up some work to work with me here, which I really appreciate and I’m grateful for.
“That’s a conversation that we need to have after a few days and the dust settles a little bit.”
Clutching a tissue and sniffling constantly, Raducanu had slightly red eyes when she addressed the world’s media following her exit.
It has been an emotional summer for the Kent-based superstar, one in which she has faced security concerns and received “some pretty bad news” during her run in Eastbourne.
But as self-critical as she is about her own displays, she is proud of how she competed toe-for-toe with Sabalenka, 27, especially in a 74-minute opening set under a closed roof.
And that only bodes well for the hard-court swing in North America.
‘IT GIVES ME CONFIDENCE’
Raducanu – who will play the Mubadala Citi DC Open in Washington later this month – said: “It’s hard to take a loss like that.
“It does give me confidence because I think the problem before was that I felt like I was gulfs away from the very top.
“Having a match like that where I had chances in both sets, it does give me confidence. At the same time, it’s very difficult to take right now.
“It gives me confidence that I’m not as far away as I perhaps thought before the tournament.
“Before when I was playing those top-five players, it was pretty convincing, the loss.
‘IT’S A BIT OF A LEVELLER’
“I feel like grass for me is a great surface. It’s a bit of a leveller in that sense.
“Taking it onto a different surface where it’s a lot more lively in America is another challenge in itself.
“There’s still a lot of things that I want to do better, a lot of things I want to improve to solidify my game, so that in the big moments I can back myself a little bit more.
“I don’t think I’ve really had a loss like this in a long time, where I feel like I maybe had chances and didn’t take them. Usually I’m pretty good at converting.
“In the big moments, Aryna was able to convert. She was able to hit some incredible shots.
“I just need to keep working and get back to the drawing board and improve a lot more.”
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