Emma Raducanu’s confidence is “sky-high” following “an incredible couple of weeks” and Sky Sports Tennis’ Raz Mirza feels a lot of credit has to go to her coach Nick Cavaday.
2021 US Open champion Raducanu has shown glimpses of her best form in recent weeks as she won her two rubbers at the Billie Jean King Cup to steer Great Britain to a 3-1 win over France in the qualifying round.
She followed that up with victories over former world No 1 Angelique Kerber and rising Czech youngster Linda Noskova at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix before going down against two-time defending champion Iga Swiatek in the quarter-final.
After slumping to No 303 in the WTA Rankings following a string of poor results a few weeks ago, Raducanu will now surge up 82 places to No 221.
While the player herself deserves praise, her new mentor Cavaday has also played a crucial role.
After going through several coaches in recent years, Raducanu finally seems to have found the perfect mentor as she stated in Stuttgart: “I feel very comfortable working with him. I have known him since I was a young age, so he’s someone who I feel like I can trust, and that’s a big thing for me.”
The 21-year-old added: “It’s a nice feeling. He knows pretty well how I operate. I would say I haven’t changed at all since I was eight or nine. But everything around me has changed, but it’s mentally I feel like I’m the exact same person.”
And tennis analyst Mirza also doffed his hat to Cavaday.
“What an incredible couple of weeks for Raducanu on the red dirt. After her heroics in the Billie Jean King Cup qualifiers, she came to Stuttgart feeling like a Grand Slam champion again,” he told Sky Sports Tennis.
“Her coach Nick Cavaday has helped instil an enormous amount of belief in her game and her confidence is sky-high but who knew she could play this well on clay, especially against world No 1 Swiatek.”
Raducanu went down 7-6 (7-2), 6-3 against Swiatek, but her performances on clay the past fortnight have raised hopes of extended runs at the Madrid Open, Italian Open and the French Open.
Mirza added: “She made Swiatek work her work her socks off for a touch over two hours. Not many players can claim to have done that over the past few years so is Raducanu a French Open contender?
“The slower pace and bounce of the courts have favoured her, but the real test will come outdoors as they head to Madrid, Rome and then Roland Garros. An interesting four weeks lie ahead.”
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