Serena Williams’ former coach, Rennae Stubbs, said she would welcome the opportunity to work with Emma Raducanu as the Brit’s concerning form continues.
Raducanu is currently enduring the worst losing run of her career after another first-round exit at the Qatar Open last Sunday.
The Brit’s 6-3 6-7 loss to Ekaterina Alexandrova marked the 22-year-old’s fourth loss in a row and third consecutive first-round exit after poor performances in Singapore and Abu Dhabi.
The World No.60 showed some glimpses of her old self with a run to the third round of the Australian Open at the start of the year, but any momentum has been hard to come by since then.
Raducanu’s coach Nick Cavaday stepped away from the role due to health reasons after the Grand Slam in Melbourne but the Brit is yet to find a replacement.
Stubbs, though, a former doubles major champion who worked with Williams during the 2022 US Open, said she would happily throw her name into the hat to take on a coaching role with Raducanu.
‘I would consider it (coaching Raducanu), of course,’ she said on the Rennae Stubbs Tennis 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.’
Stubbs contiunued: ‘It’s a bit of a sit down, come to Jesus moment and be honest with her about where I feel like her top level is and how she can get there and not be like, ‘we can win another Slam tomorrow’.
‘Because it’s unlikely at this point. So what are her goals realistically and what can we do to get there?’
Speaking earlier in the month, Raducanu said she was in no hurry to appoint a permanent replacement for Cavaday.
‘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,’ she said prior to the Abu Dhabi Open earlier in February.
‘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.’
For more stories like this, check our sport page.
Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
