Emma Raducanu expresses big fears after recent losses against top 10 rivals

Emma Raducanu has come up short in her battles against higher-ranked players in recent months and she has given a broad hint that she is lacking the belief to take on the game’s top players.

The 2021 US Open champion lost 6-4, 6-2 against world No 5 Zheng Qinwen in her Queen’s Club quarter-final, taking her record against top ten players to three wins in 15 matches.

Some of Raducanu’s defeats against top-10 rivals have been pretty brutal, with Iga Swiatek especially ruthless when she has played against the 22-year-old.

Swiatek hammered Raducanu at the French Open last month, repeating her victory against her at the Australian Open at the start of this year.

The scale of Swiatek’s domination in those two matches must have left Raducanu reflecting on how far behind the game’s top players she is and the defeat against Zheng at Queen’s revived those concerns.

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Raducanu was asked about the potential of getting into the top 32 of the WTA Rankings and securing a seeding for Wimbledon and she admitted her mind is more focused on the gulf in quality she is struggling to breach when she takes on top-ranked players.

“I think maybe my goals have slightly shifted from being seeded to actually improving my game,” Raducanu said.

“When I play those top players, I need to make it closer and feeling more competitive rather than just feeling, okay, I get to the third round of a Slam but then lose comfortably to one of the top players.

“I think I’d rather have a more competitive match, even if that means losing first round, second round, and I think that, to be honest, is how I feel right now.”

It was hard to overlook Raducanu’s sentiments as she made a public confession that she is doubting whether she can compete with the game’s top-ranked players.

“I think being seeded obviously helps in Masters, helps in Slams and a lot of tournaments so you’re not playing one of the top players early rounds,” she added.

Raducanu’s comments echo the sentiments of her coach Mark Petchey, who stated his belief after the defeat against Swiatek at Roland Garros that Raducanu needs to find a way to match the game’s biggest hitters.

“Since Miami, when we improvised and I started helping Emma, I said she needs to start closing the gap between the best players,” said Petchey.

“She doesn’t need me to sit between 20-50 in the world and if I’m not the best choice, she needs to find the best choice.

“On this court, Iga is 23 straight wins – you don’t put those streaks together at a major if your game isn’t so difficult to play against. It was clearly going to be the ultimate test for Emma yesterday.

“From my point of view, it’s tough on Emma as I still feel everyone is living in 2021. The games have changed massively, the balls are four times heavier than back in 2021 and Emma isn’t the biggest hitter out there.

“If you can’t put the ball through the court on a windy, heavy clay court day against someone like Iga, you’re going to get into all sorts of trouble.

“If anyone has watched Iga’s losses over the European clay court season, the players that have beaten her have played absolutely lights out tennis. Although everyone says Iga’s form is bad, I didn’t actually think that and she proved it yesterday.

“On hard courts and grass is a lot closer compared to where Emma was in Australia against Iga, but against Iga and Coco [Gauff], she knows what she has to do and it will take a long time.”

Raducanu will need to find a way to ramp up her power hitting from the back of the court if she is to compete with the game’s genuine contenders, but that will be easier said than done.

If her ceiling is a place back in the top 30 of the WTA Rankings and not as a contender for major titles, it will be interesting to assess where her motivation for what comes next in her career will lie.

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