The Brit’s former coach, Mark Petchey, who started helping her on an ad-hoc basis earlier this year but has now stepped back to focus on his commentating job, has now addressed the speculation himself, putting the gossip to bed.
Ahead of Raducanu and Alcaraz’s opening match in Flushing Meadows, the British tennis coach and pundit told OLGB: “They are just good friends. She’s good friends with a lot of people out there on the tour. The media is going to be the media.
“Obviously, I know there’s suggestions that they are going out. That’s not the case. They’re just good friends. The reality is they’re only there to play tennis.”
The former US Open champions will be fully focused on giving their all in their opening match against Pegula and Draper, and Petchey is excited to follow their progress.
He added: “It’s exciting for us as fans and I think it’s actually very exciting for the players that are involved in it as well.
“Emma and Carlos are excited to play and all the players that I spoke to at Montreal and Cincinnati are all excited to play. They’re all thrilled with the opportunity. I think they’re all pretty jacked to go and show how much it means to them to try and win this event but also to go and put on a great show for tennis.
“I’m a big fan of the event, I’m a big fan of what they’ve tried to create, and there may be a bit of tweaking here and there as we go forward.
“The thing about tennis is if you don’t try it, you’ll never know, and you can go back if it doesn’t work. But I think it’s going to be a massive success.”
Alcaraz had a quick turnaround after the Cincinnati Open, where he lifted the trophy when Jannik Sinner was forced to retire with an illness just 23 minutes into their final on Monday.
But the world No. 2 made it clear that he wanted to get on the court with Raducanu and bring his best tennis, even though he flew in less than 24 hours ago.
“I think it’s going to be new for me, which I love. I’m going to have so much fun playing there, playing with Emma. It’s going to be tough against Draper and Pegula, but I will try to enjoy as much as I can,” he said on Monday night.
“I will try to see how it’s going to be, the court, the balls, everything. I will treat that as a really important and good preparation for me. So I will try to be at my best tomorrow after the trip to New York and probably going to sleep late but I will try to put my best tennis just to help Emma to get the win and let’s see if we will get it but I think it’s going to be fun and great to have those matches.”
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