Emma Raducanu has admitted she is not comfortable playing on clay courts, but former British No 1 Laura Robson has insisted she can shine on the red dirt.<\/p>\n
Raducanu played only a limited clay court programme last year, as she opted against playing in qualifying for the French Open in favour of preparing for the grass court season.<\/p>\n
While that decision reaped some rewards as she enjoyed some big wins in front of her British fans on grass, Robson believes Raducanu should embrace the challenge of playing on grass.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think in the future, it\u2019s going to be a surface that will actually really suit me, I think, maybe I\u2019m a little bit away from that right now,\u201d she said whule playing for Great Britain on the surface in last year\u2019s Billie Jean King Cup.<\/p>\n
Raducanu\u2019s power packed ground strokes would appear to be perfectly suited to clay, but she has struggled with her movement on the surface at times, which is understandable as she would not have played on the surface growing up in Britain.<\/p>\n
Emma Raducanu \u2018made the right decision\u2019 after making a big schedule change<\/a><\/p>\n Emma Raducanu and Iga Swiatek decisions spark significant concern for historic competition<\/a><\/p>\n Despite that lack of experience, Robson has backed the 22-year-old to shine on clay this year and insisted she should commit to playing more tournaments.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sure Emma would like to do well on clay and grass this year and play a full schedule,\u201d said Robson at a Sky Sports Tennis event.<\/p>\n \u201cClay is great for developing all areas of the game. Tactically, it\u2019s a great surface to learn how to turn around matches when you are behind in slower conditions.<\/p>\n \u201cClay conditions change so much depending on the weather and where you are playing.<\/p>\n \u201cMadrid is always so different to Rome and it might be that one set of conditions suits Emma better than the other.\u201d<\/p>\n The early indicators in Raducanu\u2019s clay court season may not be suggesting she is planning to play more on the surface this year.<\/p>\n She opted against playing for Great Britain in the Billie Jean King Cup finals and then pulled out of a WTA 250 event in Rousen, as she opted to take time away from the game after her run to the Miami Open quarter-finals last month.<\/p>\n That decision inspired former world No 1 Andy Roddick to question Raducanu\u2019s motivation, as he offered up these comments on the latest edition of his Served podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cShe just found her form\u2026 why is she recalibrating? What does that mean?\u201d asked Roddick. \u201cShe looked great. She looked like a top 10 player in Miami. Why stop now?<\/p>\n \u201cI get so frustrated. I\u2019m such a fan of hers. I like listening to her reasoning on things, but you get to the quarter-finals, you are finally getting momentum and then you stop.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy put a speed bump in the middle of your season? It just happens over and over.<\/p>\n \u201cYou got to the quarters, let\u2019s build. Let\u2019s keep it rolling. I don\u2019t think clay is going to be her best surface, but she is really good on grass. Let\u2019s hope she sticks to the strategy this time.\u201d<\/p>\n Raducanu is currently on the entry list at the Madrid Open and also the Rome Open at the start of May, while her current ranking will be enough to secure her direct entry into the French Open at Roland Garros.<\/p>\n READ NEXT: Emma Raducanu\u2019s \u2018crazy\u2019 decisions questioned by former world No 1 as coaching appointment looms<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The post Emma Raducanu gets clear clay court advice from former British No 1<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Emma Raducanu has admitted she is not comfortable playing on clay courts, but former British No 1 Laura Robson has insisted she can shine on the red dirt. Raducanu played only a limited clay court programme last year, as she opted against playing in qualifying for the French Open in favour of preparing for the […]<\/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-329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329","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=329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}