Emma Raducanu opens up on her two most agonising defeats ahead of return to action
Emma Raducanu admits she found it hard to come to terms with agonising defeats in her last two tournaments, as she failed to convert three match points in her defeats against Barbora Krejcikova and Jessica Pegula.
The British No 1 turned in two of her best performances of 2025 in the opening two sets of the matches against Krejcikova and Pegula, before fading badly in the third set of both.
Responding to questions from Tennis365 at the Dongfeng · Voyah Wuhan Open, Raducanu conceded that while the defeats were hard to accept, she found plenty of silver linings ahead of playing in her final W1000 event of the year.
“I think it was hard for me,” said Raducanu. “The last two matches that I lost, I had match points in both. And it’s not something that’s really happened to me before, and then to happen twice in a week was pretty new, and to get my head around.
“I think the second match, I found it easier to get over than the first, because I know I was playing some better tennis and just improving with my level, and I feel like I didn’t take too long to kind of dwell on it, and just got straight back to work and trying to get ready as best as possible for this week.”
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Raducanu’s serve has been one of her biggest weapons in recent weeks, with the work she has been doing alongside her coach, Francisco Roig, making a big impact.
She also served well in her opening two win at the US Open and it keen to build on that progress in Wuhan.
“I think I was doing things that I wasn’t really doing in the first part of the year,” she stated.
“I think I was also dealing with Jessie’s (Pegula) ball pretty well compared to when we played in Miami. I felt just a lot more competent and composed when I was playing her this time round, which was good for me.
“And I do feel like I’m improving and making progress. I still see the differences in where I want to go, but I know I’m doing good work day to day to try and get there.
“Yeah, I think my serving has been helping me out in some moments, in matches and the first round as well, when I played Cristina (Bucsa), you know, she’s also a player who’s won a lot of matches, and I think just being able to get a free point here and there on the serve makes a big difference. And yeah, I’m happy with just the progress that I’m making.”
Raducanu is feeling at home on her first visit to the Wuhan tournament, with her mother’s Chinese heritage making this a special part of the year.
She is also in Wuhan at a big moment in their year, as the Chinese nation are celebrating Golden Week, a time of the year when families gather to spend time together.
“I’ve driven past a few cool areas,” she added. “There’s a lavender field like right across from the tennis centre, which looks pretty spectacular, the colours and obviously a big national holiday here. So there are a lot of people, but the area where we’re staying is very new, and the buildings are massive. The scale is huge, so it’s quite interesting to see.
“There are two really nice stadiums that I’ve seen so far. The architecture of them are really, really nice and interesting. So it’s pretty nice to be playing in such a unique arena. First time playing here, which is also exciting. I’m still trying to find my way around, but managed in the last couple days and different conditions again to Beijing, so just been trying to adapt.”
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