by Almost nine months have passed since Emma Raducanu removed herself from the tennis circuit.
A lot has happened on the tour in that time, including the crowning of a left-field Wimbledon champion (anyone remember Marketa Vondrousova?) and a grand slam title pre-nuptial to fellow teenager Coco Gauff.
Now a remodeled Raducanu is preparing for its first major since that long hiatus. Judging from Friday’s pre-broadcast press conference, she has little doubt that her engine will be revving in full swing soon.
As Raducanu told reporters: “I think my level, to be honest, is too good not to come through if I put consistent work together.”
One thing Raducanu never lacked was faith. She spent much of 2021 lurking for more seasonality, which came to light against her position and self-assertion.
Now we are about to see Raducanu return to her favorite habitat: a show court at a grand slam. Her Australian Open campaign is set to open on Monday or Tuesday against Shelby Rogers of the USA.
The initial signs are positive. The illness that afflicted Raducanu earlier this week – which forced her to pull out of the exhibition games on Wednesday and Thursday – has eased to such an extent that her fellow Brit Jodie Burrage reported that Emma was completely on top of the ball in training.
And there is another aura around Raducanu too, a sense of a woman who has stepped back and rethought her entire approach to tennis. This is a very different Raducanu and the witch figure who gave 58 words in response to 16 questions in her most recent meeting with the British press.
Since her US Open miracle, she has had three main problems: the expected weight, too many injuries and constant turnover of coaches. Even if some of these issues resurface – likely Number 2 and 3 – she has at least found brief respite from the grind, her body carrying and her training progressing smoothly under old friend Nick Cavaday.
“I asked him because he coached me [as head coach of the Bromley Tennis Centre] when I was between 10 and 12,” said Raducanu of Cavaday. “We’re just taking it as it goes. It has been working very well so far. Of course I hope to continue with it because I feel very comfortable with it. I know his sister [former British No 3 Naomi Cavaday] very good because, because, everyone is from Bromley. so much up the Bromley!”
Cavaday, 37, could solve one of Raducanu’s ongoing issues: the fact that she is naturally suspicious of coaches, in terms of their ability and reliability. As she said in June last year: “People in the industry… see me as a piggy bank.”
As it turns out, it seems the only advisers Raducanu doesn’t suspect have tried to take advantage of her are the ones she worked with before she rose to fame – a category that includes Cavaday, part of the Lawn’s fitness team. Tennis Association, and Jane O’Donoghue. , the coach-turned-banker who had accompanied her in Auckland two weeks ago.
When she returns to the circuit this year, Raducanu will also be traveling with another positive presence: her mother Renee, who nursed her through her long period of immobility last summer.
“My mother helped me a lot,” said Raducanu, who turned 21 in November. “For a period of time I had a scooter to get around. I couldn’t, like, text… anything.
“It puts things into perspective. The feeling that you can’t move your body, walk to the kitchen to get a snack, for example, I couldn’t do it and you miss it. You don’t really understand until you go through it yourself, no matter how many different athletes say, ‘Be thankful, be thankful to be healthy’.”
Raducanu should be delighted with his first round draw. Although Rogers is a dangerous hitter, she has not played a competitive match since last year’s Wimbledon due to a torn abdominal muscle.
If Raducanu gets through that one, there are some dangerous seeded players in her part of the draw, but none of the title favorites. His second round opponent is likely to be Sorana Cirstea, who shares his Romanian ancestry, while Chinese No. 1 Qinwen Zheng followed.
But Raducanu is too wise to judge herself on the results of the coming days. The main goal, she says, is to come away from Melbourne in good health.
“My long-term success has been playing a full season,” she said. “I know my level is there, I just have to keep working on it to make it more consistent.
“I think that will come with time in the gym, time on court, being able to play on the calendar, not thinking about, ‘Am I going to have to pull out of this one?’ or ‘Does that hurt?’”
The arrival of Raducanu was an instant sensation; a fairy tale story that cannot be repeated. Now, however, it’s time for her to play the long game.
Raducanu’s message to Littler
Emma Raducanu has advised fellow teenager Luke Littler to take a breath and enjoy his recent coming of age at the PDC World Darts Championship, rather than pushing on to the next thing too quickly.
Speaking to reporters in Australia, Raducanu also cautioned Littler – whose sudden rise to fame has mirrored her own work at the 2021 US Open – to stick to a small circle of trusted friends and advisers.
Raducanu admitted that she – like everyone else in the country – was invested in the debate to see if Littler could really be that young.
“My friend sent me a picture of the boy who lost in the final,” said Raducanu, during a break from his pre-broadcast preparations in Melbourne. “She was like, ‘I can’t believe this guy is only 16 years old’.”
Asked if she could share any advice with Littler, who is almost two years younger than she was when she won the US Open, Raducanu replied: “I would say, ‘Keep your circle close, take time to enjoy it, and don’t. ‘don’t rush into the next thing right away’.”
There are clear similarities between Raducanu and Littler, who both had to qualify at their respective events. As they demolished a series of seasoned fighters, their youth, fearlessness and charisma inspired television audiences.
The only clear difference is that she won her final, but finished second to the invincible Luke Humphries. But Littler’s reputation continues to explode on the back of seven spectacular performances at Alexandra Palace.
Speaking in Melbourne on Friday, Raducanu admitted that her own historic victory had left her dealing with inflated expectations. “For a long time after the US Open,” she said, she felt as if she was “playing with a backpack of rocks”.
