Emma Raducanu has prematurely ended her trial with new coach Vlado Platenik after only 14 days and one match.
The Slovak coach arrived in Indian Wells on March 5, the day before Raducanu’s first and only match there. And he departed the team the day before her first match in Miami, a 6-2, 6-1 win over Japanese wildcard Sayaka Ishi yesterday.
After a week of training in preparation for the Miami Open the partnership, due to run at least through to the end of the French Open in May, ended suddenly on Tuesday night. So suddenly that the first we were aware of it was when Platenik was nowhere to be seen in the Raducanu courtside box.
A statement from Raducanu’s team read: ‘Emma and Vlado have parted ways. Emma has utmost respect for Vlado and the work they started but it wasn’t quite heading in the right direction. Emma is now focused on doing as well as she can here in Miami after her a solid start today and will continue looking for the right coach.’
That new man or woman will be the eighth coach of the 22-year-old’s career.
Platenik said in an interview with Slovak press during Indian Wells that the trial was through to the end of the French Open. In the same interview he referred back to a previous interview when he described the Raducanu job as ‘coaching suicide’.
Emma Raducanu has split with her latest coach after just 14 days and one match in the job
Vlado Platenik once described the Raducanu job as ‘coaching suicide’ to Slovakian press
She will now search for her eighth coach aged 22 after her split from Platenik (pictured right)
‘Emma also approached me in a similar situation right after a great success (winning the 2021 US Open), which is why I said it could be coaching suicide,’ Platenik told Slovakian newspaper Dennik N. ‘But now she is in a completely different position.’
The fact that team Raducanu had, according to Platenik, twice tried to hire him in the past makes it all the more surprising that he has been dispensed with so summarily.
On the face of it Platenik looked a strong appointment. Not a flashy supercoach by any means but an experienced 49-year-old who had worked with several top players such as Daria Kasatkina and Dominika Cibulkova.
Raducanu appeared to obliquely refer to the split in her on-court interview after beating Ishi, her first ever win in Miami.
‘It hasn’t been easy for me coming into this week so I’m happy and I think I put on a really good performance,’ said the world No 60.
How long ago it feels when Raducanu was talking to a group of British journalists in December of last year, with her trusted coach Nick Cavaday about to enter his second year in charge.
Mail Sport asked her that day about her history of changing coaches – she had five between April 2021 and November 2022 – and she replied: ‘It has never been my philosophy to chop and change coaches.
‘I’ve never wanted that. I’m a very loyal person, whether that’s with my tennis or off the court. In the past, unfortunately, it hasn’t always worked like this but that is my intention and whether things happen that way is not necessarily something I can predict or control.’
Raducanu beat Japanese wildcard Sayaka Ishi in straight sets to claim her first Miami Open win
Before the Miami Open victory, Raducanu had suffered six defeats from seven on the spin
The former US champion, pictured with her father Ian, has urged that it has never been her philosophy to chop and change coaches, describing herself as a ‘very loyal person’
One coaching change that certainly was out of her control was the loss of Cavaday, who stepped away after the Australian Open for health reasons.
For one reason and another, Raducanu has been in a spiral ever since. And it is not easy to see when she will regain some stability.
There was at least a straightforward win for the world No 60, much needed after a run of six defeats in seven matches. Ishi, a 19-year-old ranked 188 and playing only her third tour event, was never really at the races.
In the absence of Platenik, Raducanu is supported here by LTA coach Colin Beecher and her childhood coach and ‘big sister’ figure Jane O’Donoghue who was taking yet more time away from her day job as a city big-shot.
O’Donoghue was extremely vocal from the start, early on urging Raducanu to ‘break down that forehand’ of Ishi, which she duly did.
A far bigger test awaits against No 8 seed Emma Navarro. Free points will be hard to come by against a steady and crafty opponent and that match on Friday will give us a much better sense of where Raducanu’s game – and her head – is at.
