Emma Raducanu revealed she got tired of getting pushed around the court and decided to play freely and see where it would lead her. Raducanu was absolutely dominant en route to winning last year’s US Open title as she didn’t drop a single set at Flushing Meadows last year.
But Raducanu hasn’t won any titles since as she has yet to show the form from last year’s US Open. “I kind of just got tired of pushing the ball around and having people hit the ball and they’d run me around.
I was just, like, ‘Look, I have tried that for pretty much a year.’ If I’m going to lose, I’m probably going to lose anyway pushing the ball around at this level. It just doesn’t work. I’m just going to do it and give this tournament a swing.
And it worked. I think that it is definitely relieving because I feel like I’m swinging with the same sort of freedom as I probably had, more similar to last year. So it feels really good. I think that I can really take it as a positive week, and I actually feel like I’m heading in a good direction again,” Raducanu explained, per the WTA website.
Raducanu noticing positive changes
This week in Cincinnati, Raducanu started off her campaign by beating two Grand Slam champions – Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka. Raducanu defeated Williams 6-4 6-0, while she handed Azarenka a 6-0 6-2 loss.
Even though Raducanu lost to Jessica Pegula and didn’t really make a deep Cincinnati run, she was happy that she was able to play more freely. “In the past year, I think it’s probably the first tournament or one of the few tournaments that I have actually started going for my shots more.
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. This week I kind of just was like, ‘Look, I’m just going to try. I don’t care if I make errors, it’s fine,’ but I’m just going to like overhit if anything,” Raducanu added.
