Emma Raducanu has admitted she is not at her best on clay courts, but she is about to be presented with a glorious opportunity to change how the rest of her season could look.
Raducanu showed signs of progress on clay courts as she won her opening match against Susan Lamens at the Madrid Open and then battled hard before losing against Marta Kostyuk in a tight second round encounter.
That win in Madrid allowed her to climb back into the top 50 of the WTA Rankings and there could be much more to come for the 2021 US Open champion as she looks to make further leaps forward.
Raducanu is in Rome for the second WTA 1000 clay court tournament of the season and the draw has given her a big chance to overhaul Katie Boulter to become British No 1 once again and possibly even get into a position to be seeded for Wimbledon in July.
The draw for the Italian Open has been reasonably kind for Raducanu, as she will play a qualifier in her opening match.
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If she wins that opener, Raducanu will face No 20 Ekaterina Alexandrova, who she beat at the Australian Open at the start of this year.
She also lost against Alexandrova at the Qatar Open in February, but the draw could have been much more challenging for unseeded Raducanu as she could have been paired with Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff or any of the highest-ranked players in the women’s game.
If she were to get past Alexandrova, another contest against Amanda Anisimova could be lying in wait in the third round, with her 2-0 winning record against the American making for impressive reading.
Raducanu beat Anisimova at the Australian Open in January and then also beat her convincingly in a one-sided match on her way to the quarter-finals of the Miami Open.
World No 3 Coco Gauff is also in Raducanu’s section of the draw and if she were to get to the fourth round, it would represent her best performance in a WTA Tour clay court event.
Three wins in Rome would give Raducanu 120 ranking points and while that would not be enough to move past Boulter and reclaim the British No 1 ranking, she would be knocking on the of that achievement if she gets to the last-16 in Rome.
Raducanu opted against playing the French Open last year, so she has a chance to go for more points at Roland Garros this year, with her boosted ranking set to secure her direct entry into the draw for the second Grand Slam of 2025.
So while she may not be entirely comfortable on clay after playing limited matches on the surface in her formative days in tennis, she could be a handful of wins away from a return to the top 32 and potential seeding for Wimbledon in July.
She will have plenty of ranking points to defend when she gets to the grass court swing of the WTA Tour, so this next month is a great opportunity to find her feet on clay and she admits she is still a work in progress on the surface.
“I think it’s positive to get through and play two matches on the outdoor clay courts,” she stated after losing against Kostyuk in Madrid. “I would say that it is pretty noticeable to me that I don’t necessarily feel very comfortable, but I think that’s something that I can improve on and work on.
“It is my second proper clay season and the first one in three years. So I think I’m just trying to give myself a chance to play as many points as I can on it, and also [I need] time on the court training as well.
“I found moving really difficult. I felt like I was slipping around, but it was taking me a long time to get out of the corners and after the serve as well. I’m not really sure how to improve that, so I guess I’ll just take that back and try to work on it in the next week.”
British players tend to struggle on clay courts as they have little or no experience playing on the surface in a nation that does not have many high-quality courts covered in the red dirt, but Raudcanu has a chance to make some big leaps forward in the rankings if she can master the surface over the next two tournaments.
The post Emma Raducanu handed glorious chance to make a rankings breakthrough appeared first on Tennis365.
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