Emma Raducanu: 'The target will be off my back now'
Emma Raducanu says the "target will be off my back" after she was stripped of her title as the reigning US Open champion with a first-round loss in New York.
And the 19-year-old now has her sights set on winning another tournament – at any level of the game.
Raducanu’s ranking will drop into the low 70s or early 80s after her defeat at the hands of France’s Alize Cornet. But as she spoke about the next phase of her young career on Tuesday night, she sounded invigorated by the upcoming challenge.
"For me, the most exciting thing is trying to do well at each of the different tournaments," said Raducanu. "It sounds weird, but [although] it would have been great to defend the title, I kind of want new experiences.
"In a way I've kind of done that [won the US Open]. So, like, I want another tournament. It doesn't really matter what it is. I think any player would be happy to win a tournament.
"I think it makes a massive difference no matter what the level is. Yeah, I think I'll play some 250s [the lowest level of WTA events]. I think the rest of the year is that. We'll see what the calendar holds."
Raducanu performed solidly enough against Cornet, delivering a palpable improvement from the patchy level she showed at Wimbledon. Even so, she lacked the penetration to worry one of the game’s most stubborn and versatile defenders.
Her feelings after the 6-3, 6-3 defeat were mixed, she explained later. While frustrated not to have lasted longer in New York, she is at least looking forward to starting afresh in the coming weeks.
"It’s obviously really disappointing, really sad to leave here," said Raducanu. "It's probably my favourite tournament. But also, I mean, in a way happy because it's a clean slate. I'm going to drop down the rankings. Climb my way back up. In a way the target will be off my back slightly."
Raducanu added that she wanted to spend as much time as possible on the training court before the end of the season. She has suffered so many injuries and illnesses since last year’s miraculous New York triumph that momentum has been hard to come by.
In an increasingly familiar scene, Raducanu called the trainer at the conclusion of Tuesday’s first set to treat blisters on her racket hand. She wore strapping on her fingers throughout, and around her right wrist as well.
"I've been getting some blisters throughout the weeks in the States," she explained. "But I think that's just down to humidity and stuff. I got a new one [more recently]. But, like, you know, you tape it up and move on it. Sometimes these things happen in these conditions. But, yeah, not much I could really control."
Asked what is going to be the most important factor as she tries to regroup and reboot, Raducanu replied: "Just putting consistent weeks together. If I look at how much tennis I played this year, or training I've done, it's very, very minimal.
"We actually counted the days. From Rome to a bit after Wimbledon, I only played tennis for 14 days in two months and a half. It was pretty wild. But, as I said, six weeks of training [in the USA], already feel like I'm so much better as a player. I definitely feel like I am growing in confidence."
'She still hasn't found her identity'
The coach who accompanied her through those weeks was Dimitry Tursunov, the Russian who was formerly a top-20 player in his own right. Yet Raducanu was non-committal on Tuesday when asked whether they would continue to work together. One issue could be Tursunov’s nationality, which is likely to affect his freedom to travel.
Most observers believe that Raducanu would benefit from picking one stable coach and sticking with him or her. Speaking on Eurosport, the seven-time major champion Mats Wilander said that she needs to work out exactly who she is as a player.
"I feel like she hasn't quite found her identity," said Wilander. "Is she a bit of a risk taker? Does she play really aggressively? Or does she use her movement skills, and dial back a little bit and play with a little bit of variation? Maybe a little bit more like Simona Halep used to play?
"I haven't quite seen her path - what is she going to actually end up playing like? Because she's good at everything, [but] doesn't quite have the killer shot. Right now, she's sort of in between aggressive and not being really aggressive...
"I'm very excited to see her continue and push forwards, because I do think that she seems like a great person. She has a great attitude.
"She's obviously the biggest thing that happened in British sports in a long, long, long time for the women's side and on the men's side, too. And how do you deal with that? Well, it's now back to reality, which I think couldn't have come soon enough to be honest."
