Emma Raducanu bombs out of US Open and her planned resurgence must come out of spotlight

Time is a healer, of course, and she will soon be back on the practice court. The relentless nature of the tennis tour offers the opportunity for players to move on quickly from painful defeats, with Raducanu signed up to the Seoul Open, which begins on September 19.

This low-key WTA 250 tournament will mark the start of a new phase of Raducanu’s career. For the past year she has been under an intense spotlight as a reigning grand-slam champion. There will still be lofty expectations of her, given what she has accomplished at a young age, but the pressure will not be quite so suffocating at a world ranking of No.80, at best, after this fortnight.

There are issues that need to be resolved. Raducanu – and her father, Ian, who is believed to remain heavily involved in decision-making despite rarely attending tournaments – may believe that she is a quick learner who can cherry-pick advice from a carousel of coaches, but history shows us that the stability of having one or two mentors is a more productive option.

An immediate misstep was made by Raducanu in the aftermath of her US Open triumph last year. Instead of extending the arrangement she had with Andrew Richardson – now the head coach of a Spanish tennis academy in Alicante – until the end of the year, she opted to seek another coach with tour experience midway through the season. This created an unnecessary distraction at her next tournament, in Indian Wells three weeks later, and she left the British tennis press pack stunned when she issued a serious appeal through us for potential candidates to get in touch.

Torben Beltz, the former long-time coach of Angelique Kerber, was hired in December but lasted four months before he was relieved of his duties. The Russian former player Dmitry Tursunov has been on a trial with Raducanu during the North American hard-court swing, but she was non-committal when asked on Monday whether this would become a permanent partnership.

“We had a good six weeks in the States here, but I haven’t really thought about it, to be honest,” Raducanu said.

In the unusual position of serving her apprenticeship on the tour after winning a grand slam title, the past 12 months was supposed to be a period in which Raducanu, 19, would learn and adjust to the rigours of life on the main WTA circuit. Yet there are few signs of any physical improvements. Medical time-outs are a regular occurrence, whether it be for blisters on her hand, a stiff back or a sore hip.

She was very unfortunate to test positive for Covid-19 right before the start of her pre-season training block in December. But the pertinent fact remains that she is yet to win three consecutive matches since her ten-win march to the title here last year.

“If I look at how much tennis I played this year, or training I’ve done, it’s very, very minimal,” Raducanu said. “We actually counted the days. From Rome to a bit after Wimbledon, I only played tennis for 14 days in two months and a half. It was pretty wild. I think the most important thing for me is just the consistency of these weeks, of training, of competing.”

From a technical standpoint, Raducanu has regressed, if anything. She admitted herself after thrashing Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka in Cincinnati two weeks ago that it was only then that she had managed to replicate the free-flowing tennis of her US Open run. Her forehand is often error-strewn and her serve is not as reliable. She is also not the unknown quantity in the locker room that she was last year.

Time is clearly on Raducanu’s side, though. A world ranking in the eighties is still a decent position for someone of her age to build from in the coming months, although wildcards may be required for some regular WTA events. The Billie Jean King Cup finals in Glasgow in November offer a motivational target, and it is believed that she may play some doubles in the coming months to offer the Great Britain captain Anne Keothavong a useful option should any of the ties go to a deciding doubles match.

“She has a great attitude,” Mats Wilander, the seven-times grand-slam champion and Eurosport pundit, said. “She’s the biggest thing that happened in British sport in a long, long, long time, and how do you deal with that?

“Well, it’s now back to reality, which I think couldn’t have come soon enough, to be honest.”

– The Times

Originally published as Emma Raducanu bombs out of US Open and her planned resurgence must come out of spotlight