Emma Raducanu\u2019s smile was one of the most memorable images of her 2021 US Open win, but it has been missing for long periods since that iconic victory in New York.<\/p>\n
It was almost as if it was too much too soon for Raducanu as she won a Grand Slam title before she was even close to being acclimatised to the WTA Tour, with the inevitable fall-out from a life-changing victory leading to plenty of challenges.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Raducanu<\/a> made her debut in a long list of tournaments as a major champion, with the huge expectations her breakthrough moment created proving to be impossible for the young Brit to live up to.<\/p>\n Pressure from sponsors to continue her incredible rise was coupled with a media spotlight that burned down on her every time she stepped on court and Raducanu openly admitted there were moments when tennis felt like a chore rather than a challenge.<\/p>\n Injuries complicated her story, yet the fascination around an athlete who inspired so many young girls around the world with her incredible US Open has continued even though she wasn\u2019t on court for long periods.<\/p>\n Emma Raducanu wins humorous WTA award \u2013 \u2018Oops!\u2026 she did it again!\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n Emma Raducanu can draw inspiration from Jack Draper as she faces similar obstacles<\/a><\/p>\n Her constant coaching changes drew criticism, online trolls delighted in her defeats, but the mood around Raducanu changed when she made it through to the quarter-finals of the Miami Open in March.<\/p>\n The smile that was her trademark after each and every win on that amazing US Open run almost four year ago has also returned and that is telling.<\/p>\n Raducanu seemed reluctant to play clay court events this time last year and she even turned down the chance to compete in qualifying for the French Open last June, but she has had a very different approach when selecting when to play on her least favourite surface this year.<\/p>\n She battled hard in a second round defeat against Marta Kostyuk at the Madrid Open and now she is looking forward to a third round match at the Italian Open after a solid win against over Swiss lucky loser Jil Teichmann.<\/p>\n \u201cI still don\u2019t really feel comfortable on clay, but in a way it helps me because I have to be super focused on every single point, just getting my feet right and to try and not fall over, so it is a big challenge,\u201d Raducanu told Sky Sports.<\/p>\n \u201cThe points are long, the balls do get heavier, and when I was serving it out, it was getting slower and slower, so it is physical but I\u2019m slowly finding my feet.\u201d<\/p>\n Raducanu didn\u2019t seem keen to take herself out of her comfort zone during the clay court season last year, as she took the option of waiting for some wildcards to play some grass court tournaments in her British homeland ahead of competing on the red dirt around Europe.<\/p>\n She also seems to have rediscovered the joy on a tennis court, with the changes she has made to her service motion since Mark Petchey returned to her coaching set-up having an instant impact.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you look at my serve now compared to Australia, compared to the Middle East, even Miami, I changed it after Miami with some tweaks and it\u2019s a completely different motion,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m trying to make it a bit more fluid, a bit longer, so it\u2019s hopefully more robust under pressure, but it\u2019s by no means a finished product.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel there\u2019s so much more room to grow it. I think this way I can maximise the potential.\u201d<\/p>\n \ufeff<\/span><\/p>\n Former Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli believes the big improvement Raducanu has made on clay has come with her movement.<\/p>\n \u201cI think she\u2019s moving better which is crucial on clay,\u201d Bartolli told Sky Sports Tennis.<\/p>\n \u201cThe surface is lively and you\u2019re sliding all over the place, so you need to get your legs extremely strong.<\/p>\n \u201cYou need to feel the ground really well and when I look at her muscle from the lower body she has been really putting in the work in the gym, which is probably why she decided to take a break after Miami to get those hours in the gym to make sure she was physically ready for the clay and grass too.\u201d<\/p>\n One big question mark that has been a constant focus of discussion around her constantly changing coaching set-up since her memorable US Open win in 2021, with Mark Petchey currently working on a part-time basis with the 22-year-old.<\/p>\n Bartoli suggests that the situation needs to be firmed up, but she suggested Petchey\u2019s upbeat appraoch has helped to change the mood in her camp.<\/p>\n \u201cEmma is probably looking for a coach who is not too technical,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n \u201cShe will really need someone on the court with her every day if she wants to work on her technique. She\u2019s probably wanting someone to explain to her how the tactics work for that specific opponent.<\/p>\n \u201cThey had to reposition her around the court because she had to cover the left side of the court [against Teichmann] so when you have the experience of someone as Mark, you can bring that on the table very quickly and sometimes that takes away the stress from the player.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that\u2019s what she\u2019s looking for in that dynamic. She\u2019s going to her box quite often with eye contact which means she trusts the people inside that box.\u201d<\/p>\n Raducanu\u2019s demeanour on and off the court has lifted since Petchey and long-term confident Jane O\u2019Donoghue joined her coaching set-up in Miami and while there is concern that the duo are only available to work with her on a part-time basis, the second coming of Raducanu is threatening to be more enduring than her first breakthrough moment.<\/p>\n READ NEXT: Emma Raducanu\u2019s \u2018crucial\u2019 improvement on clay revealed by former Wimbledon winner<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The post Emma Raducanu has rediscovered a key part of her personality that made her special<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Emma Raducanu\u2019s smile was one of the most memorable images of her 2021 US Open win, but it has been missing for long periods since that iconic victory in New York. It was almost as if it was too much too soon for Raducanu as she won a Grand Slam title before she was even […]<\/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-434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434","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=434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}More Tennis News<\/h3>\n