Emma Raducanu’s promising performances at the Madrid Open have not gone unnoticed with coach Mark Petchey working on elevating her serve in time for Wimbledon.

The 22-year-old posted her first win on outdoor clay courts since 2022 with a straight-sets victory over Suzan Lamens in the Spanish capital but her hopes of another strong WTA 1000 run ended with a second-round loss to Marta Kostyuk.

The former US Open champion took a break from the WTA Tour following her run to the Miami Open quarter-finals last month and instead took part in a training block with Mark Petchey ahead of the clay-court swing.

Sky Sports’ Colin Fleming felt clay novice Raducanu could take a lot from her defeat against world No 36 Kostyuk, who is seen as a specialist on the red dirt.

“This was a good level at times on a surface where she hasn’t played a lot of tennis recently,” he said during commentary.

“If she can keep working, keep finding her feet in the clay, her movement, her balance and just comfort on this surface. I think she can still have some great results in this clay-court season and I think it will serve her well for beyond that into the grass and the hard.

“A lot of positives to take from this one.”

Fleming also said Raducanu gave a clear indication of what she has been working on alongside coach Petchey since he came on board for their ad-hoc partnership after mentoring her at the Miami Open.

Petchey has previously coached former world No 1 Andy Murray into the world’s top 50, splitting in 2006 after less than 12 months together, and briefly worked with Greek ace Maria Sakkari.

“She’s gone back to her more natural service motion since working with Mark Petchey recently,” revealed Fleming. “She has done a bit of work with Nick Cavaday [former coach] on adjusting the motion.

“She’s always had a natural, flowing rhythmic service motion, and it became a bit more abbreviated with the work under Cavaday. I understand why! Trying to get the serve bigger, more impactful during matches. It’s back to that longer, flowing rhythm.”

Raducanu served four aces, winning 56 per cent of her first serve points [25/45] and 66 per cent of her second serve points [19/29] with just one double fault during her win over Lamens, while did not serve any aces during her defeat against Kostyuk, hitting four double faults, and winning 60 per cent [35/58] of her first serve points but 41 per cent [14/34] of her second serve points.

Lamens vs Raducanu: Momentum plots

Raducanu vs Kostyuk: Momentum plots

Former four-time Grand Slam champion turned tennis analyst, Jim Courier, hopes Raducanu will give his colleague Petchey the opportunity to work through the grass season, where he believes she can thrive.

“When Covid-19 hit, they went to work together, in private in the UK, so he knew her before she became a star,” the American said on the Tennis Channel.

“That’s obviously important for her in a time when she’s not been able to find a regular relationship with coaches.

“Relying on someone that she knew before it happened is really important so I don’t know how long it can last, but frankly the fact that they’re spending time together right now is really important. What I do hope is that it’s able to last at least through the grass-court season.

“No one’s expecting her to play well on clay, it’s not a natural surface for her. Grass is a surface where she first surfaced, she made the round 16 at Wimbledon before she won the US Open so for me, it’s about the building blocks for the grass-court season.”

Courier also indicated the young Brit has been working on masking her service motion and adding more potency in preparation for Wimbledon which begins on June 30.

Before the grass season, however, Raducanu competes at the WTA 1000 in Rome before the French Open.

Courier added: “What I do know already is he’s changed her service motion by adding more shoulder turn which the idea is to try and give her a little bit more disguise and a little more power. But I think overall this is a net positive for her on so many levels, we’ll see where it goes.”

Raducanu has been without a permanent coach since parting ways with Nick Cavaday in January.

Before adding Petchey to her team, the British tennis star had a two-week trial period with Vladimir Platenik.

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