Emma Raducanu claims to be a “new, better Emma” after reaching her biggest final for five years at Queen’s Club.
Raducanu was quick to pay tribute to coach Andrew Richardson, who oversaw her historic run to the US Open title in 2021. The pair reunited last month after Raducanu endured a torrid few months and suffered a post-viral illness.
“It’s great to have him back,” Raducanu said. “We have been working on this game style. The whole week I have been playing really good tennis and the brand of tennis that I really want to play.”
Since that victory at Flushing Meadows, her career has been plagued with injury and fitness issues, including surgery on both wrists and an ankle, and most recently an illness that she contracted ahead of February’s W250 Transylvania Open.
The clay season might not have gone to plan with first-round exits in Strasbourg and Roland Garros after a break of more than two months, but Raducanu’s attacking game is more suited to grass, and she showed why in west London on Saturday.
The Briton split with former coach Francisco Roig after the Australian Open at the start of the year, saying she wanted to go back to the style of tennis she played when she was younger. And who better to oversee that transition than the coach who guided her to her seismic US Open win five years ago.
Is her run at Queen’s a return to the old Emma? “I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s the old Emma,” Raducanu said. “I think it’s the new Emma, because you take all the lessons and experience, all the different ups and downs. You understand a lot more what’s going on and what works for you. So I’d say, I’m back and better.”
Rain earlier in the week meant Raducanu had to play her quarter and semi-finals on the same day, but she came through both in straight sets, finishing with a dominant 6-2, 6-2 win over the in-form Iva Jovic.
Before her 6-4, 6-2 win over Sorana Cirstea earlier on Friday, Raducanu had not beaten a player in the top-20 for over a year, but after reaching the final, she now has two to her name in the space of a two days.
The Briton might have felt tired having emerged onto the Andy Murray Arena for the second time on Saturday, less than three hours after winning her quarter-final. But her opponent Jovic was also far from well-rested.
She had played a doubles match that went well into Friday evening and lasted three sets, which likely played a part in her medical time-out after just five games to have her foot re-wrapped by the trainer. Jovic then pulled out of the doubles she was due to play on Saturday evening with a left-foot injury.
Raducanu’s serve had been a source of strength against world No 18 Cirstea in the third round; but she made several errors in the quarter-final before putting those behind her against Jovic.
“I’m playing really good,” she said. “The lessons would probably be to be my most authentic self. My personality, it’s clear this week that I had a lot of fun on the court. When I’m smiling and enjoying it, that’s when I feel the best level can kind of flow out from there, rather than trying to put me in any type of mould.
“That’s what Andrew and the rest of the team does such a great job of – they just create a space where they allow me to be myself, and seeing that come through this week has been a great reinforcement of what we have been doing.”
In the semi-final, Raducanu claimed the first set emphatically, taking it 6-2 in 45 minutes to put herself within touching distance of only her third tour-level final.
She started the second set in the same fashion as she finished off the first, holding easily and then carving out two break points in the first of Jovic’s service games, taking the second courtesy of a double fault.
But Jovic rallied and Raducanu found herself on the receiving end of three break points, and was broken to love straight away, to find her lead reduced in the second set. But like she had done so well throughout the tournament, the home hope dug deep and held her nerve.
When Jovic fired a forehand into the net on the first of Raducanu’s two match points, the Briton let out a big smile and fist pump before walking over to shake hands. It then sank in and she was able to let out a yell of elation.