
In her latest Sky Sports column, Laura Robson discusses Jack Draper’s chances of glory at Roland-Garros, Emma Raducanu’s hopes, while also reflecting on Novak Djokovic’s shock split from Andy Murray and picking her winners in Paris…
I think Emma’s got a good chance against anyone. She’s playing great at the moment, has a lot of belief in what she’s doing on the court and has some trust in who she’s with at the moment, in Petch [Mark Petchey] and Jane [O’Donoghue]. So, I can see things going well for her over the next few months.
Petchey’s got his own responsibilities with the Tennis Channel and other broadcasting that he’s committed to. I really like Petch. I’ve worked with him when we’re commentating the world feed in Australia. When I first started, it was great to be in the booth with someone like him because he’s so analytical and super engaged on technique and the minor things that can change during a match.
That’s something that I know she really enjoys as well, so they’ve got so much in common and what they love about the game is really similar.
What about Draper’s remarkable improvement since Australia?
His game has always been there, but the body wasn’t. And then as soon as he was able to get that right, you knew it was going to be a really quick transition for him. But to see how consistent he’s been able to keep it over the last few months on different surfaces, I think has been the most impressive thing.
Huge, huge credit to him and his team because it’s one thing to play well on court, but the fact that his body is holding up is another. Matt Little’s done a great job. He’s got two physios, Shane [Annun] and Jonny [Binding], who’ve done a fantastic job as well. And then it makes it easier to step out onto the court and have that confidence in yourself and the fact that you can go the distance.
For me, from the side of the court, he’s not getting as stressed in these long matches or tight moments because he can trust in himself a bit more. It starts with the amount of work that you do on the practice court and the fact that you don’t think you’re going to break down anymore.
I feel any result that gets him to the second week would be a bonus for Jack, considering where he was this time last year, and the expectations have, of course, totally changed ahead of the Grand Slam, but he still doesn’t have a lot of best-of-five clay experience.
Why did the Murray-Djokovic partnership end?
It’s a partnership that was always going to be very hard to schedule. Both of them have very different lives. One’s still on tour, one’s retired and spending time at home with family, with some golf on the side. I think you see it all the time with coaches.
You get all you can out of the partnership and then move on, there’s still a lot of mutual respect between them. It would have been fascinating for Andy to learn how Novak works behind the scenes, he would have been loosely aware of what he was up to, but then to be in the thick of it within the camp is something unique.
So they both would’ve learnt a lot over the past six months. The pairing came together so soon after retiring that he probably wants to switch off from tennis for a little while.
And the French Open champions are?
On the women’s side I’d say Aryna Sabalenka is definitely the favourite. But outside of that, there’s a handful of people who could win the tournament, in Iga Swiatek, Jasmine Paolini and Coco Gauff .
In the men’s draw, Carlos Alcaraz is certainly the favourite in my mind. There’s a few other standout players but Alcaraz has had a pretty great clay-court season, hasn’t he? A win in Monte Carlo, final in Barcelona, didn’t play in Madrid but then wins Rome. You can’t really ask for more.
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