Explainer – Why Emma Raducanu has a real chance to break into the world’s top 10 in 2022

Tennis News
Emma Raducanu

She was the breakthrough star of 2021 and now Emma Raducanu has a real chance to take her career to a whole new level next year.

The British teenager cemented a place in tennis history when she became the first qualifier to win a Grand Slam title, after her remarkable triumph at the US Open.

That triumph propelled her towards the top 20 of the WTA rankings, which was quite a rise considering her ranking was a lowly No.338 ahead of her run to the Wimbledon quarter-finals last summer.

Now the door is open for Raducanu to make rapid strides forward in the WTA rankings, even if she fails to replicate her heroics of the second half of 2021 when the tennis tour resumes next month.

All of her rivals in the top 20 of the WTA rankings having points to defend in tournaments ahead of Wimbledon next summer, Raducanu has a clear run to make ground in the rankings each week from the start of January.

If she was to enjoy a good run at the Australian Open, she could find herself knocking on the door of the top 10 and Masters events at Indian Wells and Miami in March.

Raducanu will then get a chance to test her clay court skills ahead of the French Open, with a high seeding certain for the grass court events in the UK ahead of Wimbledon in late June.

Only then will Raducanu have big ranking points to defend from her run to the fourth round of Wimbledon this year, with a top 20 seeding for her home Grand Slam all-but assured given the ranking points calculations.

Raducanu is currently around 800 points away from a place in the 10, with a run to the semi-finals of the Australian Open in January likely to see her edge close to the top ten as it would add 720 points to her tally.

Yet she will only need to make up those 800 points in what could be upwards of ten tournaments in the first half of 2022 to edge close to the top 10 in the WTA rankings, with her ranking ensuring she will get byes in the first rounds of some events that will guarantee her bonus points.

If Raducanu reached the latter stages of several events ahead of Wimbledon, she could find herself taking strides towards the upper echelons on the top 10, with quarter-final and semi-final appearances enough for her to secure bug ranking leaps.

Raducanu will next appear on court at the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi later this month, before heading to Australia with her new coach Torben Beltz in late December.

Emma Raducanu

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