"Emma never lost the talent": Andy Roddick's former coach backs Emma Raducanu to reclaim top-10 spot in WTA rankings

Ex-coach of the former world number one Andy Roddick, Rick Macci, believes Britian’s Emma Raducanu can return to top-10 in WTA rankings. The 22-year-old was once regarded as the next big thing when she lifted the US Open title at the age of just 18 in 2021.

The most impressive aspect of that triumph was the fact that she started the competition in the qualifying round and still went on to lift the title after beating Canada’s Leylah Fernandez in the final in straight sets with a score of 6-4, 6-3.

Since then, however, Raducanu has struggled to maintain consistency. The Toronto-born star is currently taking part in the Miami Open, where she cemented her spot in the quarterfinal after beating America’s Amanda Anisimova in straight sets with a score of 6-1, 6-3. Following that performer, the ex-coach of the former world number one Roddick, Macci, backed Raducanu to return to the top-10 in WTA rankings. The 70-year-old expressed those opinions in a post on the social media platform X — previously known as Twitter.

“Emma never lost the talent. You never lose what got you there on the outside. Over coaching leads to over thinking and creates restrictive adaptations and can hurt players more than help and they think too much and put them in a mental vacuum. If Emma plays her Authentic Way top ten is back in Play. @EmmaRadacanu,” he wrote.

Raducanu, while talking to the media after the match against Anisimova, stated that she was ‘proud’ of having the ‘competitive spirit’. “The biggest thing I’m proud of is just finding the competitive spirit and being there for every ball and drawing that out of myself,” she said. “I think that’s kind of been missing in the last few months and even a few years at times. Just feeling a lot of hunger, feeling on the court competitive, wanting to run down every ball, and that’s the biggest win I would say from this week.”