Emma Raducanu is back thanks to an ‘authentic’ approach – now the next step is clear
Emma Raducanu arrived in Miami having lost five of her last six matches, low on confidence and struggling on court. A back injury which disrupted her early season prep, the departure of her coach, Nick Cavaday, on health grounds, and the traumatic ordeal of a stalker following her from tournament to tournament across Asia, all combined for a difficult start to the year. Then came an abortive two-week coaching trial with Vladimir Platenik, which ended on the eve of the Miami Open.
Less than a fortnight later, Raducanu leaves Florida a first-time WTA 1000 quarter-finalist and having produced some of her best tennis since her stunning run to the US Open title in 2021. It feels fair to suggest that she has exceeded all expectations in Miami Gardens – and rebuked many of the doubters.
Throughout her career the 22-year-old has not been shy about doing things differently, and she has been quick to credit a more relaxed approach for her improved performances this week. In the absence of a coach, she has been accompanied by family friend and long-term mentor Jane O’Donoghue and player-turned-commentator Mark Petchey. In the lead-up to matches a smiling Raducanu has been seen playing spikeball and joking around with her team.
“This week I have some really good people around me who I trust and who I have fun with off the court as well, and that is extremely important,” she told Sky Sportsafter her last-16 win over 17th seed Amanda Anisimova, who won the year’s first WTA 1000 in Doha.
“When I play my best I am definitely authentic, true to myself and creative. I feel when I am boxed into a regimented way then I am not able to express myself in the same way.”
For a player who has received intense criticism for her unorthodox approach to things – such as the coaching merry-go-round of her earlier career – it seems that being true to herself, and ignoring the external noise, is particularly important.
This week it certainly paid off. Both physically and mentally Raducanu attacked every game, playing aggressively, taking time away from her opponents. She swept aside Japanese wildcard Sayaka Ishii, asserting herself from the baseline and remaining cool and composed while Ishii’s errors piled up. Her second-round encounter was a much tougher task against eighth seed Emma Navarro, who recently became only the fifth player this century to win a tour final 6-0, 6-0.
Despite the gulf in their rankings Raducanu went toe to toe with her, edging a classy, tight first set on a tiebreak, and refusing to falter despite losing a runaway second set. Multiple times this week she has fought back from the brink, demonstrating both her mental resilience and her improved stamina. In her quarter-final against Jessica Pegula – the world No 4 and a phenomenally consistent athlete – she recovered from similar dips in form, regrouping after falling from 5-2 up to being broken for 5-4 in the second set, ultimately forcing a decider.
Medical timeouts have been a feature of her career so far, and they continued to dog her in Miami. She needed treatment for blisters against Navarro and said she felt “faint and dizzy” in the humid conditions against Pegula. What was different this week was how she responded. Fitness coach Yutaka Nakamura has been the one constant in her corner this season and her improved durability is clearly a byproduct of that partnership.
The parallels with Jack Draper are obvious – another vastly talented young British player who is beginning to find his consistency on tour after an injury-disrupted first couple of years, and is shooting up the rankings in the process.
Most of all, Raducanu simply played inspired tennis this week. She has had issues with her forehand and serve recently, tweaking the service motion to mixed results, but both were firing in Miami, powerful and supreme in their accuracy. She didn’t drop a point on serve in the first set against Anisimova and her smooth ball-striking and immaculate timing were constantly on show, while her backhand slice proved adept at wrong-footing her opponents. As Pegula demonstrated in their tight, attritional quarter-final, it is now about bringing that gamestyle and that consistency week in and week out.
From the low point of her Indian Wells exit, Raducanu comes out of the ‘Sunshine Double’ with a newfound confidence and – as she said herself – a rediscovered “competitive spirit”. This was a fortnight of firsts: a first WTA 1000 quarter-final, a first win over a top-ten player on hard courts, a first four-match winning streak on the tour since her Flushing Meadows triumph. She also returns to the top 50 and is beginning to put pressure on Katie Boulter in the British No 1 spot.
Most significant, it seems, is the “authentic” way it’s all been achieved. Now she will turn her attention to the clay season, and another place to prove the doubters wrong. Her inspired turn for Great Britain in last year’s Billie Jean King Cup qualifiers, on the red dirt against France in Le Portel, indicates she has the ability. With the added confidence of her Miami run and the marked improvements to her game, she may have hit her stride at just the right time.
