Emma Raducanu can use bad start as ‘positive experience' says former British number one Konta

Johanna Konta believes Emma Raducanu can take a “positive experience” from her inconsistent and injury-riddled start to her first full season on tour and thinks the clay-court season will also prove beneficial.

In her first full season on the WTA tour, 19-year-old US Open champion Raducanu has earned some impressive victories but has mostly struggled for consistency. The young Brit has only managed to string two successive wins together on one occasion since her historic Flushing Meadows success.

To be fair Raducanu has been impacted by multiple injuries that may have come as a result of either a lack of pre-season training after she contracted Covid-19 in December or due to the physical demands of the professional tour. However, former British number one Johanna Konta believes there are still positives Raducanu can take from her injury-riddled start, feeling that everything can be added to her growing bank of experiences:

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“The fact that she had that tough first round against Sloane Stephens and was able to come through that and also the way she was still able to compete in that second round. I think it’s a positive that she’s on tour and she’s going to be consistently on tour now, that’s what we need to keep on talking about, she needs time in this environment and just that consistent time in this environment – it’ll all go into the bank of experience.”

Konta was asked about Raducanu and the upcoming clay season:

“I don’t really think Emma necessarily deals with pressure like how we would be expecting her to deal with it, I think she’s incredibly mature with how she’s dealing with everything around her. So, I do not believe it will faze her too much changing onto the clay court, she’s definitely played on clay courts I would assume before as a junior, and obviously again it’ll just be about spending time on that surface at the highest level of the game.