Emma Raducanu hopes her fledgling partnership with coach Mark Petchey can be for the long term but admits she will soon need to rejig her team again.
After a brief trial period with Vladimir Platenik did not work out, Raducanu turned to Andy Murray’s former coach Petchey at the Miami Open in March and went on to reach the quarter-finals.
They have continued to work together since but Petchey’s TV commitments mean it cannot be a full-time arrangement.
Raducanu’s mentor Jane O’Donoghue, a former coach now working in finance, has been travelling with her and helping out but she will soon return to her job, leaving the British number two searching for someone else to fill the gaps.
“It’s been working pretty well,” Raducanu told BBC Sport ahead of the Italian Open in Rome.
“Mark is doing his commentary work and around that he is going to help me as much as he can and hopefully the times align that he can be there with me in the matches. That’s why Jane is here for when he’s not able to make it to the session.
“While she’s not working it’s nice to have her as much as possible, but she will go back to work and then I need to figure another solution out.”
Having shot to fame aged 18 with her shock US Open triumph as a qualifier in 2021, Raducanu admits she is now extremely selective in who she trusts after being “burnt quite a lot of times”.
“The last few years, it’s been very difficult for me to trust new people, especially those who have not necessarily known me from the years before the US Open,” she said, according to the Guardian.
“I just find myself gravitating towards those people now who I’ve known, and I’d say my circle is smaller than ever. And I was so sheltered. Up to 18, I was just with my parents, they helped me with everything, like nothing could touch me.
“All of a sudden, after that, everyone came and I got burnt quite a lot of times, whether that’s professionally or personally. Now I’m just like very Fort Knox with who I let in.”
Raducanu began her clay-court season by reaching the second round of the Madrid Open and will take on a qualifier in her opening match in the Italian capital.
The 22-year-old is still inexperienced on the surface, and she said: “I feel slightly better than I did in Madrid.
“I want to use this period of the clay season to try and work on certain things in my game that I think are going to help me bridge the gap to the next level.”
Main-draw action at the Foro Italico began on Tuesday, and two-time former Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova claimed her first win as a mother.
The Czech returned in late February following the birth of son Petr last summer but had lost all four matches prior to defeating Romania’s Irina-Camelia Begu 7-5 6-1.
It was Kvitova’s first victory since October 2023 and she will next face 27th seed Ons Jabeur.
British number three Sonay Kartal also progressed to the second round in Rome, battling back from a set down to defeat Australia’s Kimberly Birrell.
The 23-year-old’s reward for a 4-6 6-3 6-4 victory is a meeting with world number 30 Linda Noskova.
British number three Cameron Norrie failed to make the men’s main draw, though, the third seed losing 6-1 4-6 6-3 to Serbian Dusan Lajovic in the final round of qualifying.
