Emma Raducanu has vowed to re-evaluate her game style while on the long journey back to Europe after failing once again to go deep at a grand-slam tournament. A tame second-round exit at the Australian Open on Wednesday ranks as one of her worst performances on the big stage.
This was always in danger of happening after Raducanu’s preparation was disrupted for various reasons. A lingering foot problem meant she was unable to start hitting balls in pre-season until December 20 and she was still struggling for fitness at the year-opening United Cup, playing only one match. Her final warm-up in Hobart last week was impacted by poor weather conditions and she arrived late in Melbourne last Friday after a delayed flight.
“I think it’s a factor,” Raducanu acknowledged on Wednesday. “I don’t want to give myself too much of a hard time, because I know my preparation going into this tournament. I have to leave with my head held high because of the matches I’ve had here. I didn’t even know at the beginning if I would be coming to Australia, so it’s a positive in that sense.”
Ultimately, though, there is clearly more for Raducanu to review considering a clear trend of performances at the sport’s biggest tournaments ever since she triumphed at the 2021 US Open as a qualifier. Branding a 23-year-old as a “one-hit wonder” is too harsh, but it is a serious concern that she has only once reached the second week of a grand slam (the fourth round onwards) in her next 13 appearances.
Raducanu had a chance to serve for the first set, but failure to do so handed the initiative to Potapova
AP
“If you would have said when I was 18 if I would be winning that night [at Flushing Meadows], I don’t think anyone would expect that either,” Raducanu countered. “So I think with that achievement, you’re inevitably going to have the same level of low. It was too high to kind of just be going on so early.
“I think I’ve accepted that and all the challenges that I’ve faced since, figuring things out, learning by mistakes, learning through experiences. All of those things I think were going to happen when you win a slam at 18 from qualies, ranked 350 in the world two months before. I’ve learnt a lot, for sure. There are just many iterations that are going on and have gone on. I’m slowly figuring out what works for me, and at the slams I think I’m doing better. A few times I’ve had really tough draws as well.
“I’m just doing the day-to-day and improving myself as a player but, yeah, my form those three weeks [in 2021] was unbelievable, as well. It’s a give-and-take, but I’ve accepted it.”
Raducanu has made the second week at a slam only once since her US Open victory in 2021
SHUTTERSTOCK
This 7-6 (7-3), 6-2 defeat by Anastasia Potapova, the world No55 from Austria, is particularly disappointing. Although the level of tennis was poor from both players in the opening set, Raducanu had the chance to serve out the first set at 5-4. This opportunity was missed, stirring an improvement in Potapova’s play to claim victory from there.
Raducanu did well for most of last year to push up the rankings and secure an Australian Open seeding of No28, but it sadly did her no good here in the end. It feels as if she began to stall during the Asian swing in September, and has only one win in her past eight matches against top-60 opposition.
While a total of 17 winners and 28 unforced errors is not good, the more pertinent Raducanu statistic is 46 per cent of first-serve points won, compared with Potapova’s 64 per cent. She is struggling to impose herself in the points, not only with an ineffective serve but also with a forehand that is lacking consistency and depth. Some forehand tweaks have been made with her coach, Francisco Roig, but she was still uncomfortable on that side here, and there are clearly concerns about the overall gameplan.
“I want to be playing a different way,” Raducanu said. “The misalignment with how I’m playing right now and how I want to be playing is something that I just want to work on.
“I just want to hit the ball to the corners and hard. I feel like I’m doing all this variety, and it’s not doing what I want it to do. I need to just work on playing in a way more similar to how I was playing when I was younger. I always just changed direction, took the ball early and went for it. I do have the ability to do many things on the court but I feel like, as I’m learning all those skills, it’s like I need to stick to my guns a bit as well and work on that. For me, it’s pretty simple.”
The early stages of the match did not make for great viewing with breaks of serve in each of the first five games. Raducanu, backed by the majority of supporters at the ANZ Arena, eventually got her nose in front with a hold for 4-2 but she did not look confident at 5-4 and gifted the break back.
Potapova, 24, had been deeply frustrated with her own game up until that point but eventually started to show the talent that made her a former world No1 in her days on the junior circuit. She stepped up in the tie-break to claim the first set and looked far more settled from the baseline with a 3-0 lead in the second set.
Raducanu enjoyed most of the support from the crowd on ANZ Arena, court 3 at Melbourne Park
AFP
“I thought it was a very difficult match with the conditions in the first set,” Raducanu said. “I thought it was tricky trying to get used to how lively it felt out there. And also the wind was pretty strong from one side, so just not something that I felt, you know, too comfortable with. I didn’t feel like I dealt with it particularly well.
“Even so, I still had some chances in the first set but, yeah, nevertheless, just one of those days you don’t feel too good on the court. But credit to her [Potapova]. She found a better solution in the first set, and then really played better, I thought, in the second.”
The swirling wind was admittedly tricky at times out there, but it was poor of Raducanu only to hold serve once in the second set, at 5-1 down. She now misses out on a third-round match with the world No1, Aryna Sabalenka, and instead heads to back to London for ten days with plenty of food for thought before a WTA tournament in Cluj, Romania.
“I just need to take it for what it is, be pragmatic, and go back and keep working,” Raducanu said. “The season is still quite long, so hopefully if I stay healthy, do the right things, then it will start falling into place.”