Emma Raducanu finished her 2025 season on course to secure her big target as she is back in the top 30 of the WTA Rankings and closing in on a seeded position at the Australian Open in January.
Now she will be aiming for more next season, with the British No 1 having some time to reflect on the progress she made over the last 12 months and evaluate where she can improve.
Here is your Tennis365 guide to the five big areas Raducanu needs to work on before she returns to action at the United Cup in Australia next month.
1. Serving consistency
Raducanu’s best performances this season came when her serve was firing, as this gave her a platform to build around.
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She has struggled to hold serve too often against big-hitting opponents over the last couple of seasons, but she added pace and accuracy to her serve after Mark Petchey joined her coaching team at the Miami Open in March and she was in dominant serving form in the first two rounds at the US Open.
She doesn’t have the firepower to compete with some of the game’s top players, but the balance of power can change if she gets plenty of free points on her first service points.
2. The power game
Can Raducanu compete against the game’s biggest hitters?
The answer to that question remains in doubt after she was blown away by Iga Swiatek and Elena Rybakina, where the chasm in class and power appeared to be too much for the British player.
Yet she confirmed in her matches against world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka at Wimbledon and in the Cincinnati Open that she could contain the power of the biggest hitter in the women’s game, even though she came up short in both of those closely contested matches.
Raducanu has experimented with different string tensions as she looks to find more power on court, but it won’t be easy for her to bridge that power gap on days when she is put under pressure.
3. Adding variety
That power problem could be eased if she can add more variety to her game.
Radcuanu can be a glorious power hitter from the back of the court, but when that plan is not enough to overpower an opponent, she can look lost on court.
Adding a few more drops shots, taking some pace of the ball and skidding it low to opponents could all be variations that would add to her armoury, but that may take time to develop.
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4. Reversing the tide
When Raducanu loses her way in a match, she can slide out of contention very quickly.
We saw that at Wimbledon in the match against Sabalenka, as a competitive first set was lost and a healthy lead in the second set was also lost.
Her defeats against Swiatek at the Australian Open and French Open and the loss against Rybakina at the US Open were additional examples of Raducanu appearing to run out of ideas and lose hope long before the end of the match.
She needs a Plan B when the tide is turning against her.
5. Adding belief
Raducanu has not reached a WTA Tour level final since her iconic US Open win in 2021 and the long wait to make a second breakthrough in the game has taken its toll.
She appears to struggle to string the four or five performances together that will be needed to reach the back end of elite level tournaments and that consistency and physical resilience will need to be added in 2026.
She could challenge for a WTA Tour title if she played more lower ranked events, but Raducanu always appears to be motivated by the top tier tournaments and that ensures the quality of player she faces will be higher.
The post Emma Raducanu: The 5 key areas she needs to improve to be competitive in 2026 appeared first on Tennis365.
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