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The ‘invisible mentor’ behind Emma Raducanu Revealed That Ready to….
The ‘invisible mentor’ behind Emma Raducanu Revealed That Ready to take her to next level
Emma Raducanu’s coaching carousel has been one of the most prominent storylines of her first full year on tour. From sudden coaching splits to her unconventional decision to operate without a full-time person at the helm of her team, it has been the talk of tennis.
But for all the attention, one woman in her inner circle managed to fall under the radar. Raducanu’s childhood coach Jane O’Donoghue has been described as the “invisible mentor” supporting her stratospheric rise, and she has now swooped in at the most important juncture in the tennis calendar: Wimbledon.
Former player and LTA coach O’Donoghue popped up at the All England Club’s Aorangi Park practice courts with Raducanu on Tuesday. She has been by her side for the entire week, as she prepares to return to the tournament that launched her career a mere 12 months ago.
The ‘invisible mentor’ behind Emma Raducanu Revealed That Ready to take her to next level
For those in the know, it did not come as a surprise. O’Donoghue’s former LTA colleague and doubles partner Claire Curran puts it simply: “Jane’s never not been on Emma’s team.”
A former top 200 player, O’Donoghue spent a decade at the LTA between 2009 and 2019, mainly serving as head of women’s tennis. In that role she helped guide Raducanu’s development, in particular from age 13 to 17, sometimes attending her training sessions in Bromley three times a week and also travelling to junior competitions with her.
In 2019 she swapped her high-powered tennis career for the city, and now works for the Royal Bank of Canada, but has remained Raducanu’s confidante. “She’s always been an invisible mentor to Emma, she’s a friend of the family,” Curran says. “So even though she’s not been on the scene in the last three-and-a-half years, she’s very much been part of Emma’s inner circle.”
O’Donoghue, 39, was a sounding board for Raducanu during Wimbledon last year, and even attended the men’s final with her on Centre Court. During the US Open, she was one of a number of coaches who Raducanu turned to for advice as she inched her way closer to her historic title.
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Raducanu’s ability to take control of her matches in New York, and for three rounds at Wimbledon last year, was one of the most eye-catching facets to her breakthrough. It is a game-style she moulded with O’Donoghue. “Back in 2018, Jane told me, ‘Emma’s always going to be the one changing direction, on the front foot, dictating play’,” Curran says. “She had a really clear understanding of the way Emma was going to build this way of playing. At the US Open, she beat people on the front foot, changing direction – that’s the game they created together.
“When I see her on the court with Emma now, I know they’ll be addressing that game identity and really making sure she’s going back to the way in which she really plays the game.”
For all her success, Raducanu is still adapting to life on tour. She has had niggling injuries and more modest results this year. Since dropping German coach Torben Beltz in April, she has adopted an alternative “training model” where she consults with a number of different coaches rather than just one.
LTA head of women’s tennis Iain Bates was in her corner during the clay court season, and she has taken technical advice from highly-regarded LTA performance coach and doubles specialist Louis Cayer. But with 17 Brits in the main draw in singles at Wimbledon, the LTA coaches were going to be more stretched. It makes perfect sense then that O’Donoghue has been called upon at this moment.
Raducanu is making her debut on Centre Court on Monday, a hugely high-pressured moment. Luckily, she will be able to turn to her temporary chief consultant to offer some first-person advice. In 2002 O’Donoghue was playing in the main draw at Wimbledon for only the second time, like Raducanu, and did so on Centre Court against none other than reigning champion Venus Williams. Unlike Raducanu, she was the underdog, and lost 6-1 6-1. But this link will no doubt be helpful.
Raducanu is said to have complete trust in O’Donoghue, as do her parents. Because of their long history working together, O’Donoghue is able to be direct with Raducanu and knows what works on the court. There is no doubt a level of respect there due to their shared interest in the finance sector too, which Raducanu and has previously spoken about.
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She has looked relaxed on the practice courts at Aorangi Park with O’Donoghue despite the injury-plagued build-up to Wimbledon. “Jane’s not looking to be in the limelight at all,” Curran says. “She just wants what’s best for Emma. I think it’s important Emma has that type of person in her team and her corner.”
There is no suggestion that O’Donoghue will be continuing this hands-on role post-Wimbledon. Nor do we know if she will even sit in Raducanu’s player box when she takes to the court on Monday. Regardless, her presence at the All England Club this week has been a welcome grounding force ahead of what could well be the most intense fortnight of Raducanu’s career so far.
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Max Verstappen has once again claimed that he is the target of ‘British bias’ in the media after watching the fallout from his battle with Lando Norris. The three-time world champion’s defending was criticised by a number of drivers, including Lewis Hamilton.
Verstappen and Norris shared a titanic battle at the Circuit of the Americas last weekend, but the flashpoint came at Turn 12 as the Dutchman deployed a signature tactic, lunging deep into the corner to get to the apex first before running both himself and his title rival off the road.
Norris opted to keep his foot in and overtook the Red Bull driver around the outside, although this decision landed him a five-second time penalty that dropped him back behind Verstappen in the general classification. This sparked a major debate with other drivers – Hamilton included – calling for the FIA to take action and outlaw this style of defending.
Verstappen has been frustrated by this debate. Quizzed by Viaplay in Mexico on whether he’d like to see the rules changed, he replied: “No, not really. But I have the wrong passport.” Asked if he was referring to a British passport, he confirmed as much.
“Yeah, it’s the wrong country, on that aspect… with complaining” he replied. “I love my passport but on that aspect, I should have had a different passport, actually.” The Dutchman also complained of ‘British bias’ earlier this season following comments made by Adrian Newey.
When asked about the debate surrounding Verstappen’s on-track conduct, former title rival Hamilton was quick to point out that the Dutchman has been employing these tactics for some time, dating back to their no-punches-pulled fight in 2021.
“It’s always been a grey area, that’s why he’s got away with it for so long,” Hamilton explained ahead of the Mexican Grand Prix. “They probably need to make some adjustments for sure.
“Also, we do have inconsistencies through rulings, weekend in, weekend out, obviously depending on which years it is. I mean, as a sport, we do need to level up on all areas and if you look at other global sports, they have full-time refs, for example, and I’m sure that wouldn’t be a bad thing for our sport.
“I experienced it many times with Max, you shouldn’t be able to just launch the car on the inside and be ahead and then you go off and still hold your position. So, they need to definitely work on this.”
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$200M Jeff Gordon teams up with Chase Elliott and Co. to decode the HMS driver behind the “Don’t judge me” old tweet
Hendrick Motorsports vice chairman Jeff Gordon teamed up with Chase Elliott and other HMS drivers in a lighthearted fun exercise for fans where they attempted to solve the mystery behind an old tweet from their current driver.
The anonymous tweet reads, “Don’t judge me, but I can’t wait to see the new twilight movie haha,” and it’s believed to belong to one of the HMS’s driver lineups, which includes Elliott, Kyle Larson, William Byron and Alex Bowman.
Jeff Gordan, who has a net worth of $200 million (according to Celebrity Net Worth), and HMS drivers tried to guess, but none of them were correct. Bowman and Elliott named Byron, while Byron went with Elliott, but it was Larson. He accepted that it was his tweet in 2011 and revealed that he likes Catherine Hardwicke’s Twilight movie.
HMS shared the video of the fun investigative activity on Instagram with a caption:
“Hold on tight, spider monkey”
Watch the Jeff Gordon and HMS’s guesses below:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DBjQ7EzP3A7/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=e5182e01-3688-440a-ae00-0bf669973e15&ig_mid=01331E07-1F15-4C86-B3DB-7587302F0125
Three out of four HMS drivers are still in contention for the 2024 NASCAR Cup championship. Larson and Byron are in good position in the playoffs points table, with 35 and 27 points above the cutline.
However, 2020 Cup champion Elliott is in danger of getting eliminated from title contention, as he’s 53 points behind the cutline heading to this weekend’s Homestead-Miami race.
In an interview with NBC Sports earlier this season, Jeff Gordon spoke about the competition between their two best drivers, Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott, for the regular season championship. Gordan wanted to see both top drivers perform well and race aggressively against each other while maintaining sportsmanship in their chase for the regular season title.
However, neither Larson nor Elliott won the championship; it was Tyler Reddick who clinched the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series regular season championship. Speaking to NBC Sports, the four-time NASCAR Cup champion Jeff Gordon said:
“I think it’s pretty clear at Hendrick how we expect teams and drivers to race against one another and how they’ve got to go and compete not only against their competitors but against one another.
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“Kyle Busch is an a**”: Brad Keselowski publicly chastised his fierce NASCAR rival in front of over 150,000 spectators
Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski birthed one of the fiercest rivalries in NASCAR. The duo had multiple run-ins throughout their careers, but the seed of their feud was sown at the 2010 Xfinity Series race hosted by the Bristol Motor Speedway. In the aftermath, Keselowski publicly castigated Busch in front of over 150,000 fans during driver introductions.
Busch kicked off his Food City 250 from third place in his #18 Toyota while Keselowski began in 13th. However, as the 250-lap battle inched closer to its conclusion, the then-Penske Racing driver held the domination while the former #18 Joe Gibbs Racing driver fought hard for the lead.
After struggling to overtake for nearly a dozen laps, Busch, with 31 laps until the checkered flag dropped, lunged ahead of Keselowski, only to be wrecked from behind and lose the spot again.
However, the JGR driver quickly retaliated and spun out Keselowski’s #22 Dodge. The move propelled the #18 Toyota to the victory lane while the Penske driver fell from a potential win to settling in 14th place.
The bitter feeling inside Brad Keselowski surfaced during the Bristol Cup Series race driver introductions the following day. After Kyle Busch introduced himself, his fierce rival took the mic and blasted Busch with his “a**’ comment.
“Brad Keselowski, driver of the Penske Racing Dodge. Kyle Busch is an a**,” he said.
However, when asked why he slammed Busch, Keselowski said that Juan Pablo Montoya challenged that he can’t call the JGR driver an “a**”. It’s worth mentioning that the crowd’s roar on the Penske driver’s introduction notched 104.2 decibels.
“Sometimes you just don’t like a guy”: Kyle Busch publicly slams Brad Keselowski during their 2017 title fight
The bitter rivalry between Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski was such that both made unapologetic comments about the other from time to time. Despite the latter publicly extending an olive branch to the former in 2015, their relationship remained sour.
Max Verstappen addresses ‘British bias’ at Mexican GP after Lewis Hamilton put-down
$200M Jeff Gordon teams up with Chase Elliott and Co. to decode the HMS driver behind the “Don’t judge me” old tweet
