Former world No 4 Tim Henman has set Emma Raducanu a rankings target for 2026 as he gave his verdict on the Brit\u2019s coaching collaboration with Francisco Roig.<\/p>\n
Raducanu<\/a> is currently ranked 29th in the world, which is her highest ranking position since she dropped the points from her 2021 US Open victory in September 2022. She reached a career-high ranking of world No 10 in July 2022.<\/p>\n The Brit is the No 28 seed at the 2026 Australian Open<\/a>, and she began her campaign at Melbourne Park with a 6-4, 6-1 opening round victory against world No 197 Mananchaya Sawangkaew.<\/p>\n The 23-year-old\u2019s pre-season was disrupted by bone bruising in her foot, and she fell in three sets to Maria Sakkari at the United Cup in her first match since October.<\/p>\n Raducanu then reached the quarter-finals at the Hobart International last week, where she defeated Camila Osorio in the first round and received a second round walkover before losing to Australian wildcard Taylah Preston.<\/p>\n Speaking to TNT Sports, Henman declared that there is \u201cno question\u201d about Raducanu\u2019s tennis ability.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I think about Emma Raducanu and her progress from the end of last year into this year, she\u2019s moving in the right direction, but she\u2019s had this problem with her foot,\u201d said the former British No 1.<\/p>\n \u201cShe just played one match at United Cup and I think performed well against Sakkari, but Sakkari played very, very well. To me, there\u2019s no question about her tennis ability.\u201d<\/p>\n Henman worked alongside Raducanu\u2019s coach, Roig, in his role as Great Britain\u2019s United Cup captain earlier this month.<\/p>\n The six-time major semi-finalist revealed he was impressed with Roig, who coached tennis icon Rafael Nadal for 18 years.<\/p>\n \u201cI really cannot speak highly enough of him. He was great, fun to be around,\u201d Henman\u00a0said.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel his knowledge and his input on the court, practice court, match court is really excellent. And I think they\u2019re building a really good relationship.<\/p>\n Emma Raducanu told why the Australian Open will be \u2018very challenging\u2019 by leading injury expert<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Emma Raducanu superfan scores big gift from British No 1 after \u2018shameless\u2019 act<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Want more from Tennis365? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for tennis coverage you can trust.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cSo I would love for Emma and Francis to keep going. I think they\u2019re making a lot of progress, building in all the right areas. And as I said, a lot of it is also in the gym to build that physical resilience.<\/p>\n \u201cThey finished the year [ranked] 29, but actually, when you look at a few of the matches, certainly at the end of the year against [Barbora] Krejcikova and against [Jessica] Pegula, she had match points, Emma, in both those matches.<\/p>\n \u201cIf she comes through those and wins a couple more, she easily could finish in the top 20. For 2026, for Emma to finish in the top 20 is a realistic goal.\u201d<\/p>\n On Raducanu\u2019s first round Australian Open victory, Henman added: \u201cShe had a difficult first round, didn\u2019t get off to the best of starts, but then once she got going she ran away with it and, in the end, had a good first round victory.\u201d<\/p>\n Watch the Australian Open on Eurosport, TNT Sports, HBO Max and discovery+<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Raducanu will take on world No 55 Anastasia Potapova<\/a> in the second round of the Australian Open on Wednesday.<\/p>\n She shared her thoughts on what will be her first meeting with the 24-year-old Russian-born Austrian.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember watching Anastasia all through juniors. I was the year below her,\u201d Raducanu said.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was always the player to watch and beat through juniors. She\u2019s been very high ranked, as well, in the pros. A big hitter.<\/p>\n I know it\u2019s going to be a really tricky one. I need to just gather my strength and prepare as best as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n READ NEXT: The meaning behind Naomi Osaka\u2019s Australian Open outfit that stunned fans and pundits<\/a> The post Australian Open: Emma Raducanu gets \u2018realistic\u2019 2026 rankings target from Tim Henman<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Former world No 4 Tim Henman has set Emma Raducanu a rankings target for 2026 as he gave his verdict on the Brit\u2019s coaching collaboration with Francisco Roig. Raducanu is currently ranked 29th in the world, which is her highest ranking position since she dropped the points from her 2021 US Open victory in September […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1637\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What did Tim Henman say about Emma Raducanu?<\/h2>\n
Australian Open News<\/h2>\n
What has Emma Raducanu said about her second round Australian Open opponent?<\/h2>\n
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