Muzza out in the cold as Emma sticks with Petch

Emma Raducanu’s decision to try her luck with Mark Petchey at the French Open means Andy Murray is suddenly without a coaching ride.

The two-time Wimbledon winner parted ways with former rival Novak Djokovic after that ad hoc coaching relationship dissolved over the past month on clay in a flurry of poor results.

But if Muzza had any hopes of a dream team pairing with former fellow Grand Slam winner Raducanu they are nowhere to be found.

Raducanu made it clear that she is sticking with Petchey in Paris, despite the fact that his television commentating duties are likely to prevent him from attending all of her matches at Roland Garros.

“It completely depends on the schedule that he gets here, I knew that going into it,” the player said.

“For him it’s a great opportunity to keep doing what he does so well and at the same time have fun hopefully being on court with me.”

The Raducanu camp, led by her father, has a reputation of ruthless discarding coaches after as little as a fortnight, with the player’s showings over the past seasons since sinning the 2021 US Open blighted by inconsistency and injury.

“Being a lot more self-sufficient is something Mark has helped me with the last few weeks,” raducanu said in Paris.

“One great sign of a coach is when you don’t necessarily feel like you need them every shot, every point, so he’s really helped me to figure things out for myself.

“I want to keep working with him as much as I can.

“He’s going to help me over the grass which I’m looking forward to so at least for now I’m pretty set up.”

The retired Murray and Raducanu talked back in the day about teaming up in Grand Slam mixed doubles – a pairing which never came to pass when Raducanu pulled out of a planned Wimbledon entry.

Now it appears a coaching collab is also a no-go.

“I’m looking forward to seeing Andy around and having a conversation,” Raducanu said. .

“I think he would give great advice, he’s been in a similar situation and would probably understand a lot of things that I’m also going through.

“But as to anything more, I don’t know, that’s very far out of thought.”