Emma Raducanu ‘takes a risk’ every time she plays tennis, says Patrick Mouratoglou while highlighting challenges of professional tennis players

Famous tennis coach Patrick Mouratoglou believes that Emma Raducanu ‘takes a risk’ every time she takes the court. The 22-year-old was once regarded as the next big thing when she lifted the US Open at the age of just 18 back in 2018.

The most impressive aspect of that triumph was the fact that she started the competition in the qualifying round and still went on to lift the title after beating Canada’s Leylah Fernandez in the final in straight sets with a score of 6-4, 6-3.

Since then, however, Raducanu has struggled to maintain consistency. The Toronto-born star returned to the court in late 2023 but continued to struggle, both in terms of fitness and her performances. Her most recent outing was at the Miami Open, where she had an impressive outing. Her journey ended at the quarterfinal stage as she lost to America’s Jessica Pegula with a score of 6-4, 6-7, 6-2.

Famous tennis coach Mouratoglou, who is currently working with former world number one Naomi Osaka, was recently quoted in a report by Tennis 365, where he discussed how difficult it is to be a professional tennis player. The 54-year-old took Raducanu's example and believes that a player like her always takes a ‘risk’ whenever she plays on the court.

“A champion is always the complete package and that is the game and the mind,” said Mouratoglou. “You cannot separate one from the other and that is why it is so important to understand players mentally. Tennis players are very fragile machines. They are not robots, Most players are confident as they have the ability to play good tennis when they reach the top of the sport, but so many of them don’t believe in themselves when they play certain opponents. When they lose a few matches, they lose belief to beat others and when you are in the locker room, you can see how some of them are scared before matches and it’s crazy. But there is so much on the line every time they play a match because first of all, they are evaluating themselves. Then they have the press evaluating them and when you are in a big country like Britain and there is a lot of publicity around tennis, a player like Emma Raducanu takes the risk that people will write or say bad things about you every time you go on court. That is not easy to deal with. Players are stressed and they need a lot of confidence to deal with that stress or they will not be able to deliver.”