Emma Raducanu is better off without a coach, says Tim Henman, but Laura Robson talks up shared ‘identity’ with Mark Petchey | Tennis News

Tim Henman feels Emma Raducanu is better off without a coach despite the British No 1 reuniting with Mark Petchey on an informal basis ahead of Indian Wells – live on Sky Sports Tennis.

Raducanu parted company with Francisco Roig in the wake of her second-round defeat at the Australian Open.

She enjoyed a strong run of form while working with Andy Murray’s former coach Petchey early in 2025 in a temporary arrangement, but hired Roig in August as she sought a new permanent fixture.

Following a six-month spell in which she has endured disappointing results, Roig, who formerly coached Rafael Nadal, became the ninth coach to depart since Raducanu’s 2021 US Open win, with the pair gelling well on a personal level but not aligning on style of play.

Her next tournament in Romania saw her reach her first final since her victory in New York in 2021, and since the split from Roig, Raducanu insisted she is happy working only with hitting partner Alexis Canter, a 27-year-old British former player who reached a career-high ranking of 779 last year.

The 23-year-old, coming off a first-round defeat to Antonia Ruzic at the Dubai Tennis Championships, is set to retain Canter as part of her setup as well as working with Petchey in the lead-up to Indian Wells next week.

Sky Sports analyst Henman thinks British No 1 Raducanu doesn’t need a coach and should concentrate on working on her physicality to match the likes of fellow Grand Slam champions Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek, Elena Rybakina and Coco Gauff.

“I just wonder whether she’s better off without a coach and that’s nothing against Petch,” said the four-time Wimbledon semi-finalist. “He’s someone I’ve known for a long time and he’s a very, very good coach but we know it’s not going to be a full-time appointment because Petch has his broadcast commitments.

“Emma has talked about her identity, her game style and she wants to own it. She’s been around long enough on the tour so I wonder whether that might be a good option for her but it’s her prerogative.

“I worked with three coaches in 15 years. I like the consistency and continuity and we know that coaches don’t last long working with Emma.

“An aggressive game style is how you have to play. You have got to be aggressive because if you don’t your opponent will be and for me. I want to see her build her physicality: to get stronger, more resilient, to hit the ball harder.

“And I think if she does that, that’ll mean that she has less interruptions and less little setbacks physically. She’ll be able to compete at a high level for longer periods, so if I could add one element it would be the physical side.

“Raducanu does work on her physical side. I think her tennis game is outstanding but when you think of the physicality of Sabalenka, Swiatek, Rybakina, Gauff, she’s not in the same league.

“The physicality is the biggest challenge.”

Petchey helped inspire the most productive period of Raducanu’s season as she reached the quarter-finals at Queen’s before running Sabalenka close in the third round of Wimbledon.

Robson: Raducanu has ‘same ideas’ as Petchey

Former Junior Wimbledon champion Laura Robson sees Raducanu’s happiness on court as the biggest advantage and argues working with Petchey can only bring out the best in her.

She said: “I think we make such a big deal out of the coaching situation and as long as she is feeling happy on the court, as long as she’s confident out there then that’s half the job done, and that’s what coaches try and bring out in you when you do have one.

“She obviously gets on really well with Petch. They’ve been on and off for a fair few years now and it’s someone she knows. They have the same ideas. They agree on so much that she needs to bring out there, so why not?

“As long as you’ve got someone who’s taking care of the boring stuff like the logistics of booking practice, finding someone to practice with, racket re-strings – all of that. As long as that’s taken care of, then you can just focus on trying to play.

“They have the same identity of how both of them feel she should be as a player.”

Raducanu is hoping to hoping to revert to a more aggressive style in order to compete with the top players and Robson says she has shown in the past she is capable of playing against the elite on the WTA Tour.

“For sure. We’ve seen how close her matches against Sabalenka have been,” said former British No 1 Robson.

“It feels like everyone is adding different elements to their game all the time, so at the moment it feels like she wants to add that aggression back into her game and once you’ve got that you can start thinking about adding more variety again so you’ve got more strings to your bow.

“But you want to have a clear identity as a player before you go out onto any match court – so long as that’s defined in your mind then that’s half the job done.”

Overend on Raducanu finding the right balance

Speaking earlier this month, Sky Sports commentator Jonathan Overend said Raducanu will only be able to find the right balance in her setup once she answers a key question.

“I think she has spent a lot of her young career re-evaluating,” he said. “In one regard, it explains why she has been through so many coaches and why she has been criticised for it.

“It’s typical of Raducanu that she wants to keep re-evaluating and finding out what is best for her on and around a tennis court.

“That challenge continues, and to some extent it is a struggle, because finding the right balance is so hard, but I think she is slowly getting [it], not in terms of her Grand Slam results but in terms of that re-evaluation process.

“What is it she really wants for herself on a tennis court and in tournaments?”

Watch the ATP and WTA Tours, live on Sky Sports or stream with NOW and the Sky Sports app, giving Sky Sports customers access to over 50 per cent more live sport this year at no extra cost. Find out more here.