Emma Raducanu ‘turning point’ revealed as Wimbledon winner says she is ‘very close’ to best level
Emma Raducanu’s changes to her calendar is starting to pay off with Tim Henman revealing her “turning point” at the Miami Open while former Wimbledon winner Marion Bartoli feels there are plenty of positives ahead of the clay-court season.
Three months into the 2025 campaign and Raducanu is on course to go past her events tally from last year as she has already competed in seven tournaments compared to the 13 in 2024. There is a good chance that she will also go past her own record of 18 from the 2022 season.
The year started with a run to the third round at the Australian Open, but she went through a slump as she made three consecutive first-round exits before ending the rot at the Dubai Tennis Championships.
But the Dubai event won’t be remembered fondly by Raducanu as her second-round defeat to Karolina Muchova was marred by a security incident with a man ejected from the arena after he exhibited “fixated” behaviour in the lead-up and during the match.
She was then stunned by Moyoko Uchijima in the first round of the Indian Wells Open before it finally clicked in Miami where she reached the quarter-final with wins over eighth seed Emma Navarro and 17th seed Amanda Anisimova.
Former world No 4 Henman says the Navarro victory in the second round was the match where Raducanu started to gain confidence again.
“It’s been great that she’s competed a lot more this year after Australia. She’s played three or four tournaments but the results haven’t been there,” he told Sky Sports Tennis.
“But I think that when you’re putting in that hard work in the gym with a physical trainer, I thought her movement both sort of offensively and defensively looked fantastic.
“The turning point was the Emma Navarro match. I think to beat a top-10 player would have given her a lot of confidence. The four wins she had bode well moving forward. So many positives for her to take on from Miami.”
Raducanu’s run was ended by fourth seed Jessica Pegula in the last eight with the American winning in three sets.
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2013 Wimbledon champion Bartoli believes the 22-year-old has upped her physical level adding that she is close to the level she produced during her 2021 US Open title run.
“Even against Pegula, it was such a close match. Yes, she ended up losing it at the end, but it’s not like she got thrashed out of the court,” the former world No 7 stated.
“When you’re capable of reproducing those kind of qualities of tennis as well, that shows you that physically you’re ready, mentally you’re ready as well.
“From my point of view, coming back after what happened in Dubai, being able to regroup, get herself going and put aside the disappointment from Indian Wells when it didn’t really go her way, she still kept on putting the hard work and believing into what she’s doing.
“And as Tim was mentioning, the way she’s been moving on the court, you really feel physically she has been coming back close to probably her best level. That being at the US Open, the year she won, and she’s very close to it.
“She’s building some momentum ahead of the clay, where the rally will be extended, and you want to be physically ready for that.
“So being able to just get that last hard-core tournament in Miami with some good vibes, with some positives to take away, repetitively as well, it’s really positive.”
