Emma Raducanu will bid to snap her four-match losing streak at the Dubai Masters next week after accepting a third wildcard into Gulf events. Since losing in the third round of the Australian Open, the British No.2 has been knocked out in the first rounds in Singapore, Abu Dhabi and Qatar.
But Raducanu, 22, is determined to keep playing main draw matches rather than go through qualifying against lower-ranked opponents. The 22-year-old has not played a qualifying match since her US Open triumph in 2021.
She lost to world No.26 Ekaterina Alexandrova in the first round of the Qatar Open before the Russian beat world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka in the second round.
The world No.60 has been without a coach after Nick Cavaday was forced to quit to deal with a chronic medical condition. Raducanu will be accompanied in Dubai by her fitness trainer Yutaka Nakamura and her friend and mentor Jayne O’Donaghue.
She has said that she will take her time before appointing her next coach. Her next mentor will be the seventh of her career and it is vital she gets the choice right.
“It’s a decision that I want to take my time with,” Raducanu said earlier this month. “I think that’s why I haven’t necessarily jumped into something straight away, because I want to make sure it’s a right fit.
“And I think this period where I don’t necessarily have someone is going to tell me a lot. It’s going to teach me a lot, what I want, what I don’t want to look for in the next person.
“So I think I’m using this time period to just figure out what I really value. I’m not too sure yet right now. I haven’t come to any plans or decisions. So yeah, I’m just taking it, using the next couple weeks to see how I feel, and then make a decision.”
Rennae Stubbs, Serena Williams’ former coach, has admitted she would consider working with Raducanu.
‘I would consider it, of course,” Stubbs said on her podcast. “I would never say no to an opportunity of working with a Grand Slam champion. What would I work on? The first thing I would do is sit her down and ask her what she wants. I think that’s the key.
“You have to know what your player wants. I think they all come in and think I am going to tweak this or that. I would sit her down and say, ‘Let’s be honest here, what do you want? How do you want to approach this?’ And then we go from there.”
