Stubborn Emma Raducanu Must Improve in Certain Areas

After her US Open fairytale, Emma Raducanu was always “going to have a pretty bumpy couple of years,” but Mark Petchey thinks she needs to start making choices that will help her get over this hump.

Raducanu had one of the most incredible runs at Flushing Meadows in 2021 when she won her first top-tier singles trophy without dropping a set, making history as the first qualifier, male or female, to win a Grand Slam.

On the strength of that performance, she moved up into the top 10 of the WTA Rankings in 2022; however, she has suffered from form issues and injuries ever since.

The 21-year-old has also made some dubious decisions. In the last three years, she has hired and fired multiple instructors, and her choice to participate in just one warm-up competition before the 2024 US Open has drawn criticism.

Tennis analyst Petchey acknowledges Raducanu has been “stubborn” with some aspects, but that’s not always a bad thing. Petchey tutored former world No. 1 Andy Murray early in his career.

He said to Bally Casino, “I really think that at Emma Raducanu’s age, you don’t really make mistakes.”

“I believe that after making choices, you start to see solutions, and that’s where Emma and I are right now and where she’s finding her identity.

“I always predicted that she would have a challenging few years following her fairytale run in New York. However, I hoped—as I’m sure everyone around her would have hoped—that some things would have been different and less difficult for her.

“You need that in tennis; she has a fantastic quality of stubbornness in some areas. You must possess a certain amount of independence.

You must be able to set things aside and entertain ideas that you may not always need to incorporate into your gameplay, but you still need to think about them. She probably wishes now that some things had gone differently.

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