Emma Raducanu has been linked with Argentinian tennis coach Carlos Rodriguez, who previously worked with Justine Henin and Li Na; Dan Evans says: "Obviously the coaching thing will be sorted soon, I guess. Then hopefully it might be a bit of a longer partnership"
Sunday 10 October 2021 13:46, UK
Emma Raducanu knows that everything is not going to be plain sailing after her return to the court following her sensational US Open triumph ended in defeat in Indian Wells.
The British No 1 enjoyed the highs of star-studded red-carpet events since her New York win, but she suffered a disappointing 6-2 6-4 loss to Aliaksandra Sasnovich.
It was just her third WTA Tour tournament and she is not going to beat herself up at the loss.
She now has to get used to life on tour and learn to deal with opponents - and defeats - like this one to the Belarussian on a weekly basis.
Expectations may have been high externally, especially in Britain, but Raducanu knows that everything is not going to be smooth sailing with lots of hard work ahead for her.
"I think it's going to take me time to adjust really to what's going on," said the 18-year-old. "I mean, I'm still so new to everything.
"Like the experiences that I'm going through right now, even though I might not feel 100 per cent amazing right now, I know they're for the greater good.
"For the bigger picture, I'll be thanking this moment. So, that's the lesson I think, that you can easily get sucked into being so focused on the result and getting disappointed.
"I mean, I'm 18 years old. I need to cut myself some slack.
"I'm still very, very new to the tour. I think that experience just comes from playing week in, week out and experiencing all these different things."
British men's No 1 Dan Evans sealed only his second victory in the main draw at Indian Wells with victory against Kei Nishikori.
During his press conference, the main focus from a British perspective remained Raducanu and where the US Open champion goes from here.
Evans said: "I would not know what she's going through. I think I read somewhere that she said it was sort of a good feeling to get that match out of the way, and that's probably true, isn't it, that she'll now start getting back to a bit of normality where she can play and get ready for the next tournament."
Raducanu travelled to Indian Wells without a coach following her decision to part company with Andrew Richardson, the man who helped her to glory in New York.
She has been linked with Carlos Rodriguez, who previously worked with Justine Henin and Li Na.
But Evans, who has spent periods travelling on his own, said: "It's not easy, obviously. But she's got the right people to be able to do the right things at the tournament.
"If she needs to hit, she needs to feed balls, that's no issue, where that was my biggest issue is that I didn't even have someone with me. Obviously the coaching thing will be sorted soon, I guess. Then hopefully it might be a bit of a longer partnership."
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