It is safe to say that Emma Raducanu’s career has not followed a linear and predictable path. Little about the Toronto-born star, raised in Bromley by her Romanian father and Chinese mother, is straightforward and guessing where she will sit in the tennis pantheon when her career is over would be a fool’s errand.
Ahead of the 2021 US Open, relatively few people had heard of her. Certainly had we asked 100 people picked at random if they knew her name just a month or so before that, prior to her unexpected run to the fourth round at Wimbledon, we doubt if recognition would have reached double figures. It is safe to say that Raducanu well and truly exploded into the tennis world.
At Wimbledon in 2021, playing in her first Grand Slam event, she made history, along with Liudmila Samsonova, when the pair became the first players to make the fourth round of a major as wildcard entries. The Brit won each of her opening three matches in straight sets before losing in two sets to Aussie Ajla Tomljanović, retiring due to sickness and breathing problems.
Despite this strong showing and some decent results in the weeks after, she had to face qualifying for the US Open, coming into the tournament ranked 150th in the world. She had to win three matches to make the first round and somehow, miraculously, she just kept riding that wave of momentum all the way to the title. She had a favourable draw but the fact she didn’t even drop a set during the whole tournament was a reflection of the scintillating tennis she produced.
Post-Slam Blues
Much of the following three and a half years have seen Raducanu struggle, with poor form, lots of injuries – both major and minor – and off-court factors affecting her play. She has earned a fortune both on and off the court, with questions whether her focus on endorsements and sponsorship deals, as well as red-carpet events, have affected her game.
There were some highs along the way, and she briefly made the top 10 in the world rankings in July 2022, following a good run to the last eight at the Stuttgart Open and some other decent tournament performances. However, she never looked like the player who waltzed through three rounds at SW19 and then went all the way in New York.
Young Star Shows Encouraging Signs
3/3 🇬🇧❤️#Raducanu | #EmmaRaducanu pic.twitter.com/g7GJYJhsVD
— Raducanu News (@RaducanuNews) November 19, 2024
It has to be remembered that Raducanu was just 18 when she won the US Open and she will not turn 23 until November 2025. She remains a very young player and the combination of that meteoric rise to stardom, and the many injuries that followed, means that she is younger in tennis terms than her chronological age.
All British tennis fans will hope that Raducanu’s best days are yet to come. 2023 was something of a write-off, with major surgery on her left ankle and both wrists. 2024 saw her begin to win a few matches and she returned to the top 100 of the rankings have slipped as low as 299 in 2023 and just outside the top 300 the following year, before a steady rise from April 2024 onwards saw her move up to 94th in mid-July and then hover just outside the top 50 for the last three months of the year.
Rankings Increase in 2025
2025 has seen her maintain a ranking between around 50 and 60 and though she lost in the first round at Indian Wells, she bounced back in fine style at the Miami Open. She was able to ease her way into the tournament by beating wildcard player Sayaka Ishii, an opponent ranked well outside the top 150 in the world. In the second round, she faced a much tougher test and produced a brilliant result, seeing off American Emma Navarro, the number eight seed.
That win will have given her a real boost because it was a bit of an epic, the Brit winning the first and third sets via tiebreaks. Her form, nerve and fitness stood up to the test against a home player and that all bodes well for the future. In the third round, she had the sort of match no player wants but that her body would have been thankful for. 6-1 and 3-0 up against another American, McCartney Kessler, her opponent retired.
That meant that Raducanu progressed to the fourth round to face another home player in Amanda Anisimova. She won easily, playing well to make the quarters 6-1, 6-3. The fourth seed – and yet another player from the US – Jessica Pegula would be her opponent in what was Raducanu’s first appearance in a WTA 1000 tournament quarter final.
Raducanu Fights On
She lost the opener 6-4 but was playing well enough and when she won the second via a tiebreak, it seemed she had a great chance to make the semis. The way she won that tiebreak was impressive, given she had blown a 5-2 lead and lost four set points. She called for the doctor and after medical checks and some treatment to bring her body temperature down she fought on.
That second set showed two sides to her game and she can take real enouragement from the brilliance of the tennis she produced to surge 5-2 in front. Equally as satisfying will be the way she dug in when the going got tough and despite visibly struggling, battled on to win the tiebreak.
Green Shoots But Familiar Issues?
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Perhaps amazingly, this was the first time since victory at the US Open that she had won four matches in a row. That mini-consistency and sustained high-level tennis will give her real hope for the future. The run moves her back into the top 50 in the world and she can take great heart from two wins over players inside the top 20.
On the flip side of things, some doubts must remain about her fitness and durability. In addition, she has dispensed with yet another coach, cutting short a trial relationship with Vladimir Platenik. This uncertainty about who she can trust and lack of a stable behind-the-scenes team is not ideal, even if Raducanu enjoys having greater freedom. That said, we should look forward with positivity, rather than think about the negatives. If she can keep building her fitness, retain her aggressive approach and keep showing her mental toughness, a bright year surely lies ahead.