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Emma Raducanu is back in action in Indian Wells, but as ever, the focus is on her coaching set-up. The British No. 1 split from Francisco Roig in January and is not actively looking for a replacement, though she has reunited with Mark Petchey on an informal basis in the Californian desert this week, and they are taking things day by day.

Roig was Raducanu's ninth coach in less than five years, and when she first hired him last summer, many were excited at what this could mean for the 2021 US Open champion. Known for chopping and changing her team, things felt different when Raducanu enlisted the Spaniard. Perhaps it was his wealth of experience, he spent years working with tennis icon Rafael Nadal.

Experienced tennis commentator Jonathan Overend, now part of Sky Sports' team, was one of those who felt that something shifted when Raducanu and Roig joined forces. In the end, however, it was another short spell for one of Raducanu's mentors, and they spent just six months working together before an amicable split following the Australian Open. It wasn't too much of a surprise, given the world No. 24 had revealed that she wasn't happy with the way she had been playing, and wanted to return to her old game style.

But it's been the story of Raducanu's young career, chopping and changing her coaches, ending partnerships after just a few months, and even commentators like Overend have been left feeling conflicted over her "radical" approach. However, after she rose from outside of the world's top 300 at the beginning of 2024, and inside the top 25 in just a couple of years, the Sky Sports commentator believes there's still a lot to be optimistic about when it comes to Raducanu - and maybe her approach to coaches could well work in her favour.

"I keep having an argument with myself about Raducanu's approach to coaches. When she hired Roig, it felt so different a hire. Not just the next touring coach. Someone who almost didn't need it. Someone whose legacy was set with his time with Nadal. An older, more wise-owl type character. And I thought it could work, because I thought it might signal a bit of a shift in Raducanu's priority in terms of her decision making, who to appoint," Overend exclusively told Express Sport.

"But then I heard her speak in Australia, and talk about that clear conflict. And you can't have conflict in a player-coach relationship. You've got to be off the same sheet. And if you're a coach trying to justify your paycheck by trying to make changes, which is perfectly understandable, by the way, any coach would want to have some sort of influence on their play. You don't want to just carry the bags and book the practice cords. But if that influence is not what the player wants or feels comfortable with, then a change is going to be inevitable."

While Raducanu's short-lived coaching stints aren't the usual strategy for a tennis player, they clearly seem to be working when you look at her ranking. And Overend pointed out that it worked in other aspects of life.

He continued: "And I do find myself sometimes coming round to this analogy of having teachers, multiple teachers across your education. And you might have a different teacher every year. You might have some students saying, 'I wish I could have Miss Green, my whole [time]'. But that's probably because they like them. But you take something from every teacher, don't you? And I think, in a way, that is Raducanu's view. You know, 'Who says I should have a coach longer than nine months or a year?'

"From the outside, it's the way to go. Because over the history of the sport, that is kind of how the best relationships have worked from a player-coach point of view. But I kind of don't mind the radical thinking. And she is very much the boss of Emma Raducanu PLC. She'll do it her way. We'll sort of, like, question whether it's the right direction, because results aren't going her way. But this is a player who was outside 300 at the start of 2024, right? And in two years, she's got herself inside top 30. And you look at her record, and you almost think, how's that happened? But any player who's gone from 300 to 25, you'd say, 'Wow. Great trajectory. You're onto something'.

"And she's still young, she's still on the right side of 25. So, I like to stay positive with Emma Raducanu. I think there's too much noise. There's too much automatic negativity. And as she proved at the US Open of 2021, anything can happen at any moment. And I hope it happens. And when it does, all those people telling her that she's got it wrong. Well, she'll have a few answers for them."

There is, of course, still some work Raducanu needs to do, ideally with the help of a coach. Whether it's Petchey or another mentor, Overend is backing the British No. 1 to do something exciting once everything falls into place.