Former British No. 1 Konta, a four-time WTA title winner who reached the French Open semi-finals in 2019, believes it is \u201dnot all dire\u201d for Raducanu despite the disappointment of suffering an early exit in the French capital. <\/p>\n
\u201dI think more than anything right now it will be about taking a slight step back. I don\u2019t think hanging everything on this loss is the way to go,\u201d Konta told TNT Sports.<\/p>\n
\u201dShe\u2019s had quite a few weeks away from the game with illness. I think there is a certain perspective that needs to be practiced here. She is back with the coach she had during the US Open when she won [Richardson]. There are a few things in motion.<\/p>\n
\u201dI know she took this loss very hard, as we could see in her press conference. I\u2019m sure there will be an ache for her this morning, but I think there is a lot to still look forward to for her.<\/p>\n
![\"picture\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/image-eafa7dfe-c885-4b25-958e-7e48b5bc205f-85-2560-1440.jpeg\")
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Watch as Raducanu suffers nightmare bagel in opening set against Sierra<\/p>\n
Video credit: TNT Sports<\/p>\n
\u201dThe grass-court season is coming up, she is going to start putting in more work with her coach, so it\u2019s not all dire. But I know that\u2019s not how it always feels in practicality.\u201d<\/p>\n
Raducanu has struggled to find form in 2026 thus far, reaching the final of the Transylvania Open in February after a second-round Australian Open exit<\/a> but winning just one tour-level match since then and spending two months away from the court recovering from a post-viral illness<\/a>. Now ranked No. 39 in the world, Raducanu\u2019s decision to re-appoint Richardson as her coach at the start of May came after Francisco Roig left<\/a> in the wake of the Australian Open in January.<\/p>\n But Konta believes discussions about the 23-year-old\u2019s coaching changes are overblown and pointed to an area where she believes improvement could come.<\/p>\n \u201dI feel like these questions about coaches are always set up to answer in the way of, \u2018Oh well, she needs someone stable for a long time\u2019 and I don\u2019t think that is necessarily the case,\u201d Konta said.<\/p>\n \u201dIn my career I had quite a few coaches and got a lot of stick from the media because of it. I actually stayed with some coaches too long because I didn\u2019t want to seem like I was switching too early.<\/p>\n \u201dOne thing I\u2019ve always admired about Emma – and in hindsight you can look at if it didn\u2019t pay off or it did – is that she has taken the initiative and taken decisions whether they are popular or deemed correct. She has always stuck by them, so I wouldn\u2019t sit here and say she needs stability in her coaching area.<\/p>\n \u201dI definitely think she needs stability in how she sees herself as a player, and that can be from the direction of a coach. So, in that perspective, yes of course, if there is a message that is consistent, that can only be beneficial for her.<\/p>\n \u201dBut for her, what is really important from a game perspective is to find her identity as a player, re-find it and add to it. We know she\u2019s a good mover, we know she can use pace well and direct the ball well, it\u2019s a very fluid and natural part of her game – really lean into that.<\/p>\n Watch as Raducanu exits French Open in \u2018dramatic fashion\u2019 after defeat to Sierra<\/p>\n Video credit: TNT Sports<\/p>\n \u201dShe needs to bolster that and add bits around it to make what she does well effective, because players know her now. That is the territory that she finds herself in, she has to know that players are going to step up against her, be motivated and know how to play her.<\/p>\n \u201dShe needs to add a bit of unpredictability to that to make what she does well effective again.\u201d<\/p>\n Konta added: \u201dI think the way her game style is, if she finds that consistency in her identity, she is the kind of game style that will naturally pick up a lot of matches on tour.<\/p>\n \u201dI think she\u2019ll find a way to start winning more and then when she comes into Slams feeling more assured and sure of what she\u2019s doing out there, a bit more helicopter-view perspective of where she is in her career, I think that\u2019s what will then lend her into going into the latter stages of a Slam.<\/p>\n \u201dThere is no formula for it, or quick fix, but the more time she can spend in bolstering herself as a person, in the work she\u2019s doing on a daily basis, the better position she will be in to convert that into wins.\u201d<\/p>\n How to move on from US Open win – ‘It will always follow her’<\/p>\n At the age of 23, Raducanu is in a position most players would love to be, inside the top 40 in the world and with a major title to her name.<\/p>\n Her stunning run to glory at Flushing Meadows five years ago came in only her second Slam appearance, as a teenage qualifier, and without dropping a set.<\/p>\n It was such an astonishing achievement that Konta believes it will always draw attention, but she also thinks that as time passes it will get easier for Raducanu to move on.<\/p>\n \u201dThe fact of the matter is that because she\u2019s won a Slam, the bar will always be so high,\u201d Konta said.<\/p>\n \u201dYes, someone of her age breaking into the top 40, spending a couple of seasons in the top 100, it\u2019s a successful career.<\/p>\n Highlights: Boulter holds off Urhobo to progress<\/p>\n Video credit: TNT Sports<\/p>\n \u201dHowever, because of the way her career started, if you say to any player that their career will start with winning a Slam, it\u2019s still an unheard of thing to experience. So that will always follow her.<\/p>\n \u201dBut as she gets older, gets more time and distance from what happened at the US Open in 2021, I think it will naturally work itself out. I think the more time she can spend on court focusing on the work and getting enjoyment and self-worth from that work, the more we\u2019ll see her flourish from a results standpoint.\u201d<\/p>\n Add TNT Sports as a preferred source here<\/a>\u00a0to enjoy more content like this.TNT Sports is the exclusive French Open broadcaster in the UK and Ireland. Coverage of every court will be available to watch live on HBO Max<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Highlights: Raducanu exits French Open after first-round defeat Video credit: TNT Sports The British No. 1 was beaten…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":603901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[205898,101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-603900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-roland-garros-womens-singles-2026-w","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=603900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/603901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=603900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=603900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=603900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"picture\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/image-a2b0e3a9-9a52-49b3-8ebd-8236139ba270-85-2560-1440.jpeg\")
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