Emma Raducanu’s Miami resurgence: Cause for optimism despite Pegula defeat

It was a tournament that began with Emma Raducanu being forced to answer questions about the departure of her latest coach after just one match.

Just a week on and the forecast appears far rosier.

Having won four matches in a row for the first time since winning the US Open back in 2021, Raducanu punched her ticket to Wednesday night’s quarter-finals at the Miami Open

And while the Briton fell short, losing 6-4 6-7 6-2 against World No.4 Jessica Pegula, she ends the tournament back inside the world’s top 50 for the first time since August 2022.

The journey back to this point has not been easy. Raducanu has battled serious injuries and terrifying ordeals off the court but her performances in Miami suggest a corner has been turned – so what’s changed?

Searching for ‘small doses of happiness’

Expectation has weighed heavy on Raducanu ever since her surprise Grand Slam triumph in 2021 and that pressure has stunted the 22-year-olds progress.

In trying to rediscover that winning formula, she has not been afraid to chop and change, already burning through eight coaches in her relatively short career as a pro.

But perhaps it is no coincidence that she is now playing her best tennis while not having a full-time coach and when the focus all week has simply been on keeping things familiar and fun.

‘I feel comfortable. I feel like in my environment, in my surroundings with the people I’m with, I feel pretty relaxed, and I can be myself and expressive and true to myself. That’s important for me,’ Raducanu said before her quarter-final match in Miami.

‘I’m someone who works really hard and can be really intense, but sometimes too intense. I guess in that way it’s harder to be extremely focused when you need to be on the match court because you’re focused from the first minute to the last.’

The mini-trampoline game Spikeball has been the secret weapon of choice to help her relax before matches with her new-look team. ‘They bring small doses of happiness that I guess just keep you going, the small things,’ she explained.

They, in this case, are Mark Petchey and Jane O’Donoghue who have been alongside Raducanu this week.

O’Donoghue, her childhood mentor and former LTA coach, has been a long-time presence on the road with Raducanu, while Petchey represents another familiar face having been involved in her development in her teen years.

Their presence has clearly been beneficial for Raducanu.

‘To have familiar faces, people that I knew, people that have really gone through the trenches with me, but also can kind of lift me up at the same time, that I think made a big difference,’ she explained in the week.

‘Just having them around, people that I really trust, yeah, I think that’s probably when I started feeling a bit better off the court. That translated on the court. I was freer.’

Improvements and good fortune on the court

The sudden turnaround in fortunes for Raducanu can’t solely be attributed to a more relaxed feel to her camp.

In fact, in some cases, it has been the hard work put in away from the spotlight that has paid dividends the most.

Her decision to bring on board renowned fitness coach Yutaka Nakamura in December appears to have had an immediate impact. Previously, Raducanu was the one breaking down in lengthier matches but now she appears more durable than ever.

Her serve appeared to be a major weakness during her poor run of form early in the year but that too has improved markedly, while her brief stint with Vladimir Platenik does seem to have ironed out some more weaknesses.

‘The work that we did before the tournament, it was only maybe two weeks, ten days, but we did some really good work. I think I’m getting some benefits on the court right now from what we did,’ Raducanu admitted when speaking about the Slovakian coach.

Pegula defeat shows the next step

While Raducannu impressed in her win over top-ten opponent Emma Navarro earlier in the tournament, the Brit was shown how much further she still has to go after her gruelling three-set defeat to Pegula.

Raducanu had chances but converted just one of six break-point opportunities before fading in the third set as she struggled with the intense Miami heat.

Pegula has built a reputation as one of the most consistent performers in the women’s game, and the challenge for Raducanu is to do similar and back up this encouraging week with consistent performances over the next few months.

Raducanu favours the fast-paced hard courts seen in the US, but she will soon have to adjust to the slower pace of clay courts as she hopefully looks to gear up for the French Open.

The 22-year-old has not been present at the French Open for the last two years and her only appearance at Roland Garros ended in the second round back in 2022.

Wimbledon will also be in her mind later in the summer, too, having reached the fourth round on two occasions in front of home fans.

There is still some way to go to rediscover the ‘fear factor’ that Boris Becker believed Raducanu had lost when speaking to Metro earlier in the year.

But after her rediscovering her competitive spirit and embracing her underdog tag in the Sunshine State, things are starting to look brighter than ever for Britain’s best-known talent.

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