TENNIS LEGEND John McEnroe believes it is “unbelievable” Emma Raducanu has had a “revolving door of coaches” in her first professional year on Tour.
Raducanu, who crashed out of the French Open in the second round on Wednesday, is working with LTA coaches Iain Bates and Louis Cayer on the Road to Wimbledon.
Yet since the summer of 2021, three coaches have bitten the dust from her set-up – Andy Murray’s father-in-law Nigel Sears, US Open-winning mentor Andrew Richardson and German Torben Beltz.
Her decision to chop-and-change coaches has surprised many in the locker room but Raducanu, 19, feels her unorthodox policy will work for her in the long term.
American McEnroe, a six-time Slam winner between 1979 and 1984, told Eurosport: “Honestly, if I won the US Open having gone through qualifying, I wouldn’t change my coach at least for the next year – so I don’t understand that move.
“Obviously her parents are involved and they know more than I know.
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“But this idea of a revolving door of coaches I just don’t think that’s good for any player, much less so for a player at this stage of her career.
“We have to wait and see and hopefully she finds someone she can stick with for a while.
“She has changed coaches, three, four or five times which is unbelievable for someone who has just come off winning a major.”
McEnroe added: “We have got to keep a little perspective here. At Wimbledon last year she was unable to finish a match because of stress and it got to be too much for her.
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“Then she came out and did something that no one has ever done – man or woman – in 150 years of tennis, coming from the qualifying and winning.
“All of a sudden, there is this pressure on her, this expectation, that has gotten a little bit overwhelming as well.”
