Emma Raducanu’s ‘two biggest hurdles’ revealed as she suffers US Open hammering
Emma Raducanu suffered a heavy defeat to Elena Rybakina at the 2025 US Open, and legendary coach Rick Macci has weighed in on the Brit’s quest to close the gap to world’s best players.
The world No 36 was dismantled 6-1, 6-2 by 10th-ranked Rybakina, a Wimbledon champion in 2022, in the third round of the US Open.
Raducanu shocked the tennis world at the 2021 US Open when — as an 18-year-old qualifier ranked 150th in the world — she stormed through the draw without losing a set to win what remains her only career title. She is the only qualifier in tennis history to win a Grand Slam.
Since that staggering breakthrough four years ago, Raducanu has endured some challenging times on tour, with injuries hampering her progress. She underwent surgeries on both her wrists and her ankle in 2023.
The 22-year-old has enjoyed the most consistent period of her career since the Miami Open in March, where she started working with Mark Petchey, who she has since replaced with Rafael Nadal’s former coach Francisco Roig.
Raducanu, who reached a career-high ranking of 10th in 2022, has been backed to return to the top 10 by Macci, who spoke exclusively to Tennis365.
“One thousand percent, she is a top ten talent. And let’s face it, there’s a fine line between winning and losing. There’s a fine line with that confidence,” said the American, who coached Serena and Venus Williams.
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“And as she gets more confident and she starts beating the top players, not only can she be in the top 10, she can definitely contend for a Grand Slam, because she has enough game, because she’s done it before.”
Tennis365 asked Macci to identify the biggest hurdle Raducanu must overcome to return to the top 10 and challenge for Grand Slams again.
“I think it’s two things, I just think that she needs to keep competing and play on her instincts and not overthink it. That’s number one,” Macci assessed.
“But I think the wildcard with her is to stay injury-free. You gotta understand, she kind of had the daily double on the comeback, you know, she had surgery and then you don’t play for a while. So, you’re not playing, and an injury — that takes a long time.
“So, if she can stay injury-free and just get a lot of matches, get some good wins. And let’s face it, anybody who plays her, they know that she’s capable of beating them now. Maybe they didn’t look at it a year ago, but now that she’s dropped a few players, played a lot of players close… and she has weapons.
“Listen, if you can hurt people and you have weapons, you can beat anybody, anytime, anywhere. She’s definitely top 10 and it could happen a lot sooner than later.”
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