Britain’s Emma Raducanu believes taking a different approach to her game at this week’s Western and Southern Open has paid off after exiting the tournament on Thursday.
The reigning US Open champion has enjoyed a memorable run in Cincinnati where she scored back-to-back wins over Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka. Two players who she watched growing up. However, she was knocked out in the third round of the tournament after losing 7-5, 6-4, to world No.8 Jessica Pegula who reached the semi-finals of the Canadian Open last week.
Despite the loss, Raducanu believes there are positives to be drawn from her performances after deciding to change her tactics this week. Opting to be more aggressive during matches rather than passive to dictate rallies more.
“I think this week was a great step for me. In the past year I think it’s probably like the first tournament or like one of the few tournaments that I have actually started going for my shots more,” she said.
“I think that recently I was kind of playing and hoping they would miss, and I think I was pushing the ball around a lot more, rather than this week I kind of just was like, look, I’m just going to try, I don’t care if I make errors, like it’s fine, but I’m just going to like overhit if anything.”
Continuing to explain further, Raducanu says the change-up occurred because she was getting ‘tired’ of being pushed around the court by her opponents. So far this season she has achieved a win-loss record of 12-14. Pegula is only the second current top 10 player the 19-year-old has played on the WTA Tour in her career.
“I think that it is relieving because I feel like I’m swinging with the same sort of freedom as I probably had similar to last year,” she commented on the change in her approach.
“It feels really good. I think that I can take it as a positive week and I actually feel like I’m heading in a good direction again.”
The confidence boost comes just in time for the US Open where Raducanu will be the defending champion. She stunned the sport last year by coming through qualifying to win the title in what was only her second appearance in the main draw of a Grand Slam event. She didn’t drop a set in 10 matches played.
As for her chances of winning the New York major for a second time, Raducanu openly admits that she needs to improve to be in with a shot of glory.
“I’m rewatching my matches from the US Open (last year) and there are certain moments where I was given a lot of gifts or maybe they got a bit tight,” Raducanu explained.
“I think I have improved as a player. I’m finding this sort of freedom in my swinging. I think that I achieved something great, of course, but I was playing completely free and I’m starting to do that again.”
The US Open will start on August 29th.
