John McEnroe is rooting for Emma Raducanu to return to competitive tennis and find her best form again as “it would be nice to have her in the mix” in women’s tennis.
Raducanu has struggled since her fairytale run at the 2021 US Open when she became the first player – man or woman – to come through qualifying to win a Grand Slam and she did so without dropping a set.
But her woes started in 2022 as she failed to replicate her Flushing Meadows success as her form dropped while she was also not helped by illness and injury, finishing the year with a 17–19 record.
Her 2023 campaign also didn’t get off to the best of starts as she won only five of her 10 matches with injuries once again a key feature, resulting her slumping out of the top 100 in the WTA Rankings.
In May she confirmed that she would miss both the French Open and Wimbledon as she underwent surgery on both her left and right wrists as well as her ankle and it remains to be seen when she will return to action.
During a Eurosport event, seven-time Grand Slam warned McEnroe that it won’t be easy to return after such a long time out, but he wants to see Raducanu “in the mix” again.
“Emma doesn’t want to be like that one-hit wonder type of thing, she wants to show what she is made of,” he said.
“She is young enough to be able to come back obviously and you want her to be able to. You’re pulling for her. You can feel the stress she has been under, even when she played the match against Wimbledon [in 2021] that she didn’t come out on the court in the fourth round.
“It would be a shame if she wasn’t around. I absolutely hope she comes back and it will be a road back. It’s not going to be easy. I don’t know when she is even scheduled to be back, it sounds like it is not until the end of the year at least I guess.
“It would be nice to have her in the mix.”
When she does return to tennis, Raducanu will most likely have yet another new coach as she confirmed recently that she has split with coach Sebastian Sachs.
Since making her breakthrough at Wimbledon in 2021, Raducanu has been mentored by Nigel Sears, Andrew Richardson, Dmitry Tursunov, Torben Beltz and Sachs.
Her decision to part ways with Richardson shortly after her US Open win raised eyebrows and McEnroe once again questioned the decision.
“Whenever you have two or three surgeries you have to be concerned,” he said. “I think she was doing the coach [Sachs] a favour from what it sounds like. If she’s not going to play for eight months the guy has to make a living.
“I’m not very surprised about that, I think it’s been clear throughout that she’s been searching for stability and searching for comfort. That she can feel she is on the right track. The only part I didn’t understand was in the beginning.
“Why she would part ways with her coach, I think it was Andrew Richardson. But why would you change a winning formula when you did something so unexpected? I don’t know the answer to that.
“I’m sure there were reasons but out of superstition alone you wouldn’t change something, so I was surprised.”
