Emma Raducanu's former coach makes feelings clear on tennis star's 'work ethic' after Singapore Open loss

The Briton endured criticism in the immediate aftermath of the contest, with some fans dismissing her prospects of future Grand Slam glory.

Petchey knows all about Raducanu, having briefly coached the tennis star in 2020.

And the 54-year-old has insisted that, while there's nothing wrong with her work ethic, she must improve her technique going forward.

Speaking to JeffBet, Petchey said: “I think when the chips are down, I'd back Emma every single time.

"I think her work ethic in general, and I can only speak when I was with her, but it is there.

"It's harder to work hard sometimes when you're not winning matches and it gets a little tougher and you're always questioning yourself so it just gets a little bit harder but there's definitely been some tinkering with her technique.

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“I don't think it's as smooth as it was in 2021. That's a much greater concern to me than all the other nonsense that goes on with Emma all the time that people want to write about because I think if that doesn't get fixed, then I think it makes it incredibly hard for her to win.

“It very quickly becomes quite a mental thing to overcome because if you lose confidence, particularly in your serve, and you don't feel like it's doing what it should do, it is the most important shot in men's and women's tennis and if you lose confidence in that for too long, it can become sort of terminal.

"I would try and work on that and get that back to where it was with somebody that has the experience to make those sort of shifts back to where it was.

“If I was Emma, I would go back and watch 2021 [when she won the US Open] and I would try and recreate it personally with the forehand and backhand.

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"I haven't seen any gains from a technical point during the rallies and I'm sure she may disagree, but I haven't really seen it."

Raducanu has also been criticised for hiring and firing several coaches in recent years.

She recently split from Nick Cavaday, with the tennis coach eager to focus on his health.

But Petchey believes the 22-year-old's pursuit of perfection is a positive, rather than a negative.

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“Emma is obviously super strong with how she sees life and her tennis and all power to her," he continued.

“I'm happy she is strong because that does make you durable and that makes you lead a very successful life. But you need to be smart enough to entertain thoughts that maybe things aren't 100 per cent where they should be as well in that thought process.

“I think the reality is that there's been a lot of voices in her world and those voices, when you have that many different voices or when you have a different coach, they have to come in with an opinion that's different to the person that was there before because otherwise why have you changed them? That is just a fact and that's just logic.

“The easiest time for any player-coach relationship is right at the start because they want the solution to their problem.

"That's when they're most open. That's when they're absorbing more feedback and that's the time as a coach, you can probably be your most honest because they hired you to say what's wrong with their game or what you think they can improve.

“In that period is when things start potentially moving in a different direction and so that's happened a lot.

"I'm not in the camp. I don't know exactly what’s going on at the moment but when you look in from the outside, you don't change a fund manager for your pension portfolio to do the same thing.

“It’s no different in sport. You change because you need something different and I do think for the first time, looking at her game, I would be concerned.”