Mark Petchey and Emma Raducanu have reunited again at Indian Wells, kickstarting the renewal of their working relationship with a routine second-round win.
It was a supreme performance from the British number one, who served excellently and recaptured her excellent returning to dominate Anastasia Zakharova.
The 6-1, 6-3 scoreline perfectly exemplified her aggressive outlook on the match, which was clearly a successful tactic.
Petchey’s influence on Emma Raducanu over the years has been evident, and again, his impact here was immediate.
And, even in the short time they plan to spend working together, he has already revealed one shot they have been working on improving.
What Mark Petchey has said about training with Emma Raducanu
It was pundit Ryan Harrison who relayed information he had gained from Petchey, having spoken to him before Raducanu’s first match in the California desert.
He told Sky Sports, right after she had beaten Zakharova: “It was a great win. She played flawless tennis. The only time she got broken was that last game trying to serve it out. It almost felt like her opponent had just kind of resigned herself and swung away, so I wasn’t really reading into that too much.
Emma Raducanu won her first Grand Slam too soon – Prove me wrong!
“But I felt like Emma went out there and did exactly what she could have hoped to do in round two.”
Then touching on his chat with Petchey, Harrison added: “Well, she served great. She talked a little bit about how she wanted to get that familiarity with Mark Petchey, and then he told me that they were working a lot on that serve, and she was beautiful on serve today. She really couldn’t put a foot wrong.
“On the return, she was really dominant as well. She had a lot of down the line, return of winners. He was talking a little bit about their desire to change direction, and she did that really well also.”
How did Mark Petchey’s 2025 spell coaching Emma Raducanu go?
This is not the first time that Petchey has agreed to help Raducanu in a short-term capacity, having arguably got her 2025 season back on track around this time last year.
He took up a position alongside the 22-year-old at Miami and helped guide her to the quarter-finals.
She then impressed in Rome, but consistently struggled to defeat the world’s best, losing to Coco Gauff, Iga Swiatek and Jessica Pegula during this period.
Who should be Emma Raducanu’s next coach?
Raducanu’s best match under Petchey arguably came at Wimbledon, where she pushed Aryna Sabalenka, the world number one, to the brink.
She followed that up with an even closer match against the Belarusian in Cincinnati, playing some of the best tennis of her career despite falling to defeat on both occasions.
Petchey clearly knows how to extract the best out of Raducanu and get her playing in a way that she prefers. He will hope to do the same again this time around.
