In an interview with Bally Casino, Mark Petchey, one of the former coaches of tennis player Emma Raducanu and a coach who in the past also worked with Andy Murray, defended his young countrywoman from the accusations and criticism that have rained down on her, in recent months.
Petchey stressed that Emma has not made mistakes, but has simply made decisions that she is learning from.
“At the age of a tennis player like Emma you don’t make mistakes, but you simply make decisions and you learn from them, you evaluate the solutions but Emma doesn’t make mistakes. I always said that after her victory in New York she would have at least a couple of difficult years but I hoped that things would be different. I’m sure that the people around her also hoped this,” he said.
It’s not an easy moment for Raducanu who recently burst into tears after a defeat, in a press conference. Emma recently spoke about her problems, revealing: “I am a tenacious and courageous girl, a real fighter. I felt the need to play the role that was assigned to me and I didn’t enjoy the moments of freedom. Sometimes I didn’t recognize myself.
Emma won the US Open in 2021 but since then she has almost always found only disappointments and physical problems. Many believed that the US Open was the beginning of a great career and instead it was not. Since then injuries and poor results, no one expected such a decline and Emma now constantly faces numerous criticisms.
Always in or out of the top-100 of the WTA ranking but far from the top of the women’s rankings: many wonder what happened to the talented athlete even if – as I have underlined in many articles – I believe that Emma is simply a girl, who has the right to win, lose or enjoy life. There are too many haters in Great Britain who criticize the tennis player, pointing out that she is distracted by what happens outside the world of tennis.
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