{"id":132985,"date":"2025-09-12T20:13:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T20:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/132985\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T20:13:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T20:13:11","slug":"emma-raducanu-told-shes-right-for-rejecting-great-britain-bjk-cup-call-up-tennis-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/132985\/","title":{"rendered":"Emma Raducanu told she’s right for rejecting Great Britain BJK Cup call-up | Tennis | Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"

Emma Raducanu<\/a>\u2019s former coach has defended her decision not to represent her country at next week\u2019s Billie Jean King Cup Finals<\/a> – and admitted he would have told her to do the same thing. The British No. 1 was initially named in GB\u2019s four-woman squad for the team event, essentially seen as the World Cup of women\u2019s tennis.<\/p>\n

But she withdrew from the squad last week and decided to take a wildcard into the WTA 500 tournament in Seoul instead, focusing on packing her schedule and earning some all-important ranking points. And Mark Petchey, who coached Raducanu earlier this year, believes it was the right call.<\/p>\n

Raducanu has thrived in the national team and won all three of her singles matches at last year\u2019s BJK Cup Finals, where Britain ultimately lost to Slovakia in the semi-finals.<\/p>\n

However, Finals week was staged in November last year – at the end of the regular WTA Tour season. This time around, the Finals will be played in Shenzhen next week, and Raducanu wants to prioritise regular tour events.<\/p>\n

And Petchey – who joined Raducanu\u2019s team in March of this year before they parted ways after Wimbledon<\/a> – believes nobody can blame her for skipping the team competition.<\/p>\n

Speaking to tennis betting site<\/a> BetVictor, Petchey said: \u201cThere’s always two sides to everything. It’s very easy to come down on the side that you should want to represent your country.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be fair to Emma, when you look back at what she achieved on the clay against France, she proved that when she’s put up against it, she can A, produce the goods and B does want to play. I don’t think you can blame Emma for a schedule that makes zero sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Raducanu is now working with Francisco Roig<\/a>, one of Rafael Nadal<\/a>\u2019s old coaches, and they\u2019re keen to build on their progress at the upcoming Korea Open. But had he still been in the team, Petchey also would have encouraged the Brit to focus on her singles schedule.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me when I was with her and before Francisco took over the reins full time, it was a 50-50 call for me in that regard,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you’re asking me personally, from a purely selfish point of view of wanting to be in the best position for Australia, I would tell her not to play.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a PR point of view, you know that people are going to take it badly. But a tennis player\u2019s career is short. She’s suddenly on an upward curve. She understands the importance of wanting to get seeded.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe tournament in Seoul is one that she obviously has played well at in the past. Tennis players obviously want to go back to environments that they feel good in, in conditions that they feel good in.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s early after the US Open; you’re never quite sure what motivation level other players have at that particular stage. So, if you’re asking me, I would have told her to make the same decision that she ultimately ended up making.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old also skipped Britain\u2019s BJK Cup qualifier ties earlier this year, but Katie Boulter<\/a>, Sonay Kartal and Jodie Burrage still managed to help the team beat Germany and the Netherlands to book their spot in the Finals.<\/p>\n

With Francesca Jones also coming on board as Raducanu\u2019s replacement, the squad will still like their chances of progressing in Shenzhen next week, where they face Japan in the quarter-finals<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To be the first to receive the latest tennis news, join our WhatsApp community<\/a> or newsletter<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emma Raducanu\u2019s former coach has defended her decision not to represent her country at next week\u2019s Billie Jean…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132986,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[9436,56067,6962,25258,36423,101,118,872,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-132985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-bjk-cup","tag-bjk-cup-finals","tag-emma-raducanu","tag-emma-raducanu-coach","tag-mark-petchey","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-tennis-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}