Emma Raducanu is preparing to return to the very city that catapulted her into the top 10 after her title-winning US Open run in 2021.
The 21-year-old Brit has struggled for wins, consistency, and fitness since her remarkable journey to glory at the US Open three years ago.
When she was just 18, Emma Raducanu battled through qualifying to reach the final without dropping a set, before a faultless showing against Leylah Fernandez propelled the teenager to stardom.
When Raducanu won the US Open she hadn’t even won a WTA Tour level match, having only played at Wimbledon a few months before.
Since however, three surgeries to her wrists and ankle have sidelined the 21-year-old and seen her ranking plummet.
A solid grass court season however saw Raducanu secure two top 10 wins and make her way to the last 16 at Wimbledon, before she skipped the Olympics to focus on the hard courts.
Laura Robson suggests Emma Raducanu is playing smart ahead of the US Open
Raducanu attracted criticism after electing to skip the two rounds of qualifying in Toronto and Cincinnati ahead of the US Open.
With fewer matches played this year on the hard courts than you’d expect after her decision to skip the Olympics, Laura Robson however has described this as a shrewd move.
“She’s not a player who needs a huge amount of matches going into a big event,” Robson explained in defence of Raducanu’s decision, reported by Yahoo Sports.
“I think we’ve seen that before, where she might play the week before, just to get some fine-tuning done, but she really enjoys the training block and plays her best tennis when she’s coming off a really strong couple of weeks of practice.
“So, it’s a really good sign that, yes, she’s had a few matches and has some confidence and some wins under her belt, but also has the chance to get to New York feeling as fresh as possible, whereas everyone else is probably feeling a bit shattered already.”
Tim Henman also backed Raducanu, with the former number one suggesting that the Brit is, or at least should be, focussing on performances rather than results at this point.
Does Emma Raducanu have a chance at the US Open?
Everything this year would tell you that Raducanu has next to no chance winning the US Open, however she has the rare luxury of having already disproven that.
While realistically, she is not playing or at least has shown little sign of being able to reach the level necessary for major glory, neither has anyone else on the WTA tour.
Only Aryna Sabalenka has been able to put together a convincing case with her faultless run to the Cincinnati title completed on Monday against Jessica Pegula.
In line with Robson’s point, tennis players may well feel ‘shattered’ with Iga Swiatek complaining about the tennis schedule this week.
This summer has seen Barbora Krejcikova unexpectedly win Wimbledon, Zheng Qinwen miraculously win Olympic gold – why can’t Raducanu add herself to this list of surprise winners?
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