Despite playing only a handful of games heading into the US Open, Emma Raducanu could put on a show at Flushing Meadows, according to former British No.1 Laura Robson.
Raducanu rose to fame after winning her maiden Grand Slam title at the 2021 US Open, where she gained access to the main draw as a qualifier. The 21-year old has been inconsistent since her biggest victory, as she's struggled with injuries and several coaching changes. However, Robson claims this might be beneficial for the former Grand Slam champion.
Raducanu has not played since reaching the quarterfinals at the DC Open a few weeks ago, having been denied wildcards at the Canadian Open and Cincinnati Open. The former World No.10 was said to have rejected the chance to take part in qualifying for the latter, instead opting for a training block ahead of her return to Flushing Meadows.
"She’s not a player who needs a huge amount of matches going into a big event," said Robson in an interview with the PA news agency. "I think we’ve seen that before, where she might play the week before, just to get some fine-tuning done, but she really enjoys the training block and plays her best tennis when she’s coming off a really strong couple of weeks of practice.
"It’s a really good sign that, yes, she’s had a few matches and has some confidence and some wins under her belt, but also has the chance to get to New York feeling as fresh as possible, whereas everyone else is probably feeling a bit shattered already."
Judging success and failure should be easy, if you win you are successful, any other result is failure. But there is going to be, counting qualifiers, almost 200 very good, successful, female tennis players hoping to lift the US Open crown over the nest 20 or so days. Only one win do that ... all the rest will not. To suggest that those who do not are failures is ridiculous in the extreme. As has been the case for as long as tournaments of any kind have been competed for, the preparation to compete varies from player to player, mostly this has been down to choice or preference, sometimes it has had to be adapted due to illness or injury and sometimes the results in prior competitions have altered schedules and training - such is the lot of a professional athlete. Emma Raducanu has got herself into the position that she could be drawn against any of the top ranked players in the first round, and few people would be surprised if she were to be defeated, but equally few would be surprised if she were to prevail and continue. What, I believe, is different with her attitude and approach to that of many others is that whatever the result, she is likely to walk away with her head held high, knowing she will learn and progress. This is a far greater measure of success. And who knows, she might even lift the crown again.