Emma Raducanu must act fast to nab top coach as Mark Petchey future unclear - EXCLUSIVE

Emma Raducanu has been told to keep her hat in the ring as her coaching future with Mark Petchey remains uncertain. The Brit linked back up with her old mentor during the Miami Open earlier this year, and Petchey has been juggling his coaching duties with his full-time commentary job. But, following Raducanu's third-round Wimbledon defeat, it's not known whether they will continue working together.

Laura Robson has now told Express Sport that the British No. 1 will need to find a coach that connects with her and do the work to nab one of the few world-class mentors on the tour, even if she maintains a good relationship with Petchey. The retired British tennis star, who is now the tournament director for the WTA event at Queen's, was happy to see Raducanu's level against world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka. The 22-year-old led by a break in both sets before the top seed stormed back to win 7-6 6-4.

"I think sometimes it feels like, you know, if you're 30 in the world that there's quite a big gulf, and especially with Sabalenka kind of winning everything. It probably just felt quite nice to see, okay, the level is still there, I can build on this and if I plan my schedule right, I can make sure I keep the momentum over the next few months," Robson, who was speaking to Express Sport as part of a record-breaking Served at Speed campaign with Lexus, said.

Raducanu has been thriving with a close-knit team of trusted people around her, which also includes former player Jane O'Donoghue, who now works in finance and is something of a big sister figure to the Brit. So it may be tough for the world No. 40 to get back to it while her coaching situation remains up in the air, as Petchey has commitments working for Tennis Channel.

While Robson believes Raducanu has always been capable, she explained: "I think sometimes you just need the right voice to sort of communicate in the way that connects with you, and that's what a good coach does.

"I think you have to change your approach depending on who you're working with and Petch seems to have done that with Emma, but they also just have a really good history and they work together in the past.

"I'm not sure if it's going to continue, I don't think either of them have said that. But I'm sure it's definitely a relationship that will carry on in some capacity, even if it's not as a full-time coach."

Even if Petchey stays on in some capacity, he can't be there all the time, and Raducanu will need to find another new voice. And Robson believes the good coaches are hard to come by.

"I think it's a challenge, no matter who you are, trying to find the right coach for you. I've said in the past as well. There's not that many that stand out to me as being world-class coaches that instantly you could learn something from," she said.

"And so there's a handful to pick from, and you've got to make sure that your name is in a ring as well because they're in high demand.

"Jane has been involved for so long and obviously Petch has been there from way back in the day as well. So she's got voices that she can lean on if needed, but again, I'm not sure what the plan is for the next few months for her coach-wise."

While Raducanu may well find herself back on the coaching carousel, Robson is recovering from a ride of her own.

The former world No. 27 joined forces with ATP Queen's tournament director Jamie Murray to smash the GUINNESS WORLD RECORD™ title for the Longest Tennis Rally of 101 strokes between two moving cars and Fastest Tennis Serve of 46.67 km/h (29 mph) on the roof of a moving car.

After working with a Hollywood stunt director to complete the challenge, Robson said: "Honestly, it felt really secure. Obviously, you know that they test it a million times before you get on it

"And then we were asking them about the most dangerous stunts that they've done and they were a lot more action packed stunts than what we did, and then it kind of puts you at ease because you're like, okay, if they can jump off a plane at this speed, then we can go down a runway at 30 miles an hour on the top of the car.

"A lot of it was just reassuring us. I think both Jamie and I have a really good time, actually, and by the sort of second go, because we do the runway in one particular direction, because of the light for filming and stuff. So on the way back, we just got to send it down the runway, still on the top of the car, all bets were off on the way back, basically. It was fun.

"I have no fear in general to be honest. I am an adrenaline junkie, I love rollercoasters. I really want to go skydiving. So this was great for me. I was like, 'When can we go faster?"

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