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What an irony! During pre-US Open interviews on Friday, Emma Raducanu described Sir Andy Murray’s stellar career as “old news”.
It was a valid point, but the comment could not help but draw attention to Raducanu’s own situation. It is now three years since she came of age at this very event – an unprecedented triumph that, for all its seemingly limitless promise, remains a black swan.
Is Raducanu also at risk of becoming “old news”?
Well, her social media following (2.6 million on Instagram, five times more than Olympic 800m champion Keely Hodgkinson can muster) means Raducanu need never fear the dark.
However, she is increasingly included alongside Bianca Andreescu, Jelena Ostapenko and Sofia Kenin (the latter being the first). due to face on tuesday – in the category marked “one-hit wonders.”
Does this bother you?
Not that you notice it. “I’ve been playing with a lot more freedom in the last month,” Raducanu told Sky Sports last week. “I’ve been expressing myself and I’ve been fighting, there’s been a lot of passion and I’ve been combative. I just feel like I’ve come back to shine and have the desire. That’s just me, I’m very tenacious and brave, and I feel like I’ve got my spark back, which I’m most pleased about.”
Despite the lack of tangible achievements, Raducanu has failed to win more than three matches in a single tournament since his Triumph at the US Open – his narrative continues to provide enough twists to keep us guessing.
In the last three years we can distinguish three different phases. The first was one of great indecision on the part of the coaches, who formed a disorderly queue between the Andrew Richardson’s departure in September 2021 and the one of Sebastian Sachs in July 2023. (In the meantime, Torben Beltz and Dmitry Tursunov have also come and gone.)
Then came the injury eight months later. double wrist surgery in May of last year, perhaps the result of experimenting with several different training methods and even string tensions.
This year, Raducanu’s career has finally regained some sort of stability under his leadership. Children’s coach Nick Cavadaywho began guiding her again in December.
Raducanu, however, remains an occasional visitor to the WTA Tour. This season she has played just 29 matches, while those in the top 10 usually have around 50. Her presence at tournaments is as intermittent as that of Serena Williams, only without notable success.
And that’s not likely to change. As Raducanu told reporters in New York: “I’m not in any hurry to play a lot. I’d rather aim for tournaments and be ready to play the tournaments I’m entered into.”
What’s going on? Does Raducanu just not care?
Well, it’s not that simple. She has been working assiduously with Cavaday on her technique and together they have introduced visible improvements in her serve and her forehand.
But Raducanu increasingly seems to view tennis as an academic exercise that she can solve remotely, like a hacker cracking a bank’s firewall. She is much less interested in the brute-force method, which would involve grinding away on the circuit until she achieves gradual improvement through sheer repetition.
There is also a sense in which her selective approach maintains a sense of mysticism. As her ranking has gradually risen (up to No. 71 this week), Raducanu has refused to participate in a single qualifying tournament, even though she was seemingly available during the preliminaries of both the French Open and the Cincinnati Masters.
While Raducanu insists she has nothing against qualifying, it seems plausible that she fears losing before a tournament even begins in earnest, as she sees it as bad for her brand. There is another irony here, given that her breakthrough triumph came via her passage through qualifying for the US Open in 2021.
But it’s also true that the tennis circuit is not a particularly pleasant experience for most people, especially on the WTA side. It’s a lonely, repetitive business. And for Raducanu, who is already a woman of independent means, there’s no need to be constantly singing to earn a living.
As Raducanu told Sky Sports last week: “The way I like to de-stress and relax off the pitch is that I’ve become very fond of art. I paint, but I’m also more interested in going to galleries and seeing exhibitions.
“As for music, I have also started playing the piano. I find it a great way to put all my emotions in one place and it is a great outlet for me, because I have to be brave a lot on a daily basis. I think it is a great way to release everything.”
How far can Raducanu take this attitude of detachment?
The biggest obstacle is her physique. She is already smaller and lighter than most top players, and by refusing to develop her physical endurance through competitive tennis week after week, she only accentuates that gap.
Yes, Raducanu can hone her muscles in the gym at the National Tennis Centre, but any player on tour will tell you there is no substitute for match play.
If she has a good draw, like the one she took advantage of at Wimbledon, Raducanu is more than capable of going far. But fatigue is sure to set in, especially if she plays a couple of three-set matches. We saw the signs when she lost her round of 16 match on Centre Court to Lulu Sun, classified by New Zealand.
One of the peculiarities of Raducanu’s victory at the US Open was that she played 10 matches and won all of them in straight sets. She never needed to go into the trenches, but that was a blessed period, when she stayed in the so-called zone for three whole weeks. This had a lot to do with a state of “beginner’s mentality.” Today, there is too much noise to allow for a direct replay.
With the money she has already made from tennis, Raducanu could easily have followed the path of 2014 Wimbledon finalist Eugenie Bouchard and turned tennis into a sideshow. True, many of her sponsorship contracts expire at the end of the year, but she remains a big enough name to renew at least some of the top-tier sponsors who helped Harbour 6 Ltd (her registered company) post a £9.6m profit last year.
As fans, we should be grateful that she continues to seek new successes on the court and that her spark, as she puts it, has returned. She is still willing to “solve” tennis as if it were an equation.
“From my point of view, people who are successful need to have a unique mind and approach tasks in a unique way,” Raducanu told Sky Sports last week. “I am quite intellectually curious and I apply that to my profession as well. Off the pitch, I love being mentally stimulated and constantly trying to learn and solve problems. I like learning a new subject or studying something.”
Raducanu is following an unconventional path, but there is no roadmap for a career like hers. Her experience is unique, as she achieved global fame before even winning a match on the WTA circuit.
Can he win another major tournament without fully committing to the tour?
It seems unlikely. There’s a reason most gamers abide by conventions, and it’s hard to think of many who have enjoyed consistent success from a different angle.
But as long as Raducanu remains interested, she’ll remain interesting, and that’s hugely beneficial to the game as a whole.
