Tim Henman urges Emma Raducanu to muscle her way into tennis elite

Tim Henman has warned Emma Raducanu she must work harder on her physicality if she is to push up the rankings.

The British number one is back in action this week at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, where a good run could lift her from her current standing of 24th in the world.

It has been another turbulent start to a season for Raducanu, who went into the Australian Open under-prepared because of a foot injury, parted ways with another coach in Francisco Roig, reached her first final since the US Open in Romania and then struggled with illness.

While much of the focus is again on Raducanu’s coaching strategy, former world number four Henman believes work in the gym and on the practice court should be the priority.

“It’s still too stop-start,” he said. “She has to become physically more resilient to be stronger and faster to then compete with the biggest hitters and the best players.

“I understand the way she wants to play. She’s an attacking baseline player. If I could add one element to her game, it would only be on the physical side – to get stronger, faster, to hit the ball harder.

“You look at the physicality of a (Aryna) Sabalenka, a (Iga) Swiatek, a Coco Gauff, a (Elena) Rybakina, Emma’s not at that level. And to a certain extent, with her physique, she might not ever be at that level but she’s got to close the gap.

“She’s (24) in the world but I think there’s a lot of us that believe she can be a lot better.”

The Roig split followed a second-round Australian Open defeat by Anastasia Potapova that saw Raducanu voice her unhappiness with the way she was playing under the Spaniard.

She will be helped again in California by Mark Petchey, who served as an ad hoc coach for several months during the spring and summer last season, while hitting partner Alexis Canter is providing day-to-day support.

Outlining her eagerness not to be bound to a single coach or prescriptive style, Raducanu told BBC Sport: “I have had a lot of people telling me what to do, how to play, and it hasn’t necessarily fit.

“So I want to come back to my natural way of playing. That takes time to relearn because that’s something that has been coached out of me a little bit. I don’t necessarily want to have one coach in the role because anyone I bring in is straight away going to be scrutinised – even if it’s a trial.

“I might feel the pressure to stick with them, even if it’s not necessarily the right decision. I would love to have a coach that works well, but I don’t think it’s necessarily going to be easy to find one person and they are going to check every box.

“I definitely have my mind open to it. It’s just that I would rather someone not come in and tell me ‘let’s do this’, and I disagree with it but have to listen to them.

“So far Alexis [Canter] has been really good, but I am definitely going to tap into a few people here and there.”

It is a big fortnight, meanwhile, for Jack Draper, who will play just his second ATP Tour event since last June as he defends the biggest title of his career.

The 24-year-old was being touted as the most in-form player in the game 12 months ago after beating Carlos Alcaraz on his way to the trophy but a bone bruise in his left arm has been a major setback.

Draper made a positive return in Dubai last week, suffering a narrow loss to Arthur Rinderknech in the second round, and Henman believes patience will now be the key.

“With the amount of time he’s been off and coming back on to the tour, even if he’s 100 per cent healthy, it will take him time to build up not only match fitness but match toughness,” said Henman.

“And it’s not easy. We all know he won Indian Wells last year and there’s 1,000 ranking points and his ranking’s probably going to go in the wrong direction but you’ve got to take a long-term view.

“He’s such a good player that, given time and uninterrupted tournament play, he’ll move back up the rankings.”

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