Emma Raducanu has revealed she is planning to use the clay-court season to practice for the grass-court and hard-court swings in the second half of 2025.
Raducanu has made no secret of her discomfort on clay courts and she pulled out of playing in qualifying for last year’s French Open as she focused on preparing to play on grass in her British homeland instead.
Now she is showing more eagerness to play on clay and after picking up a win at the Madrid Open and turning in a battling performance despite a defeat against Marta Kostyuk in her second match, the displays provided evidence that she is making progress on clay.
Raducanu is back in the world’s top 50 after her positive performances in Madrid and she has a chance to go higher if she can win matches at the WTA 1000 event in Rome this week and then at the French Open later this month.
Yet it seems she is already looking ahead to a return to grass courts in June and the US hard court swing that will follow in August and September as she prepares to play a qualifier in her first match in Rome.
“It’s a good challenge for my game,” said said as she spoke about playing on clay in an interview with Sky Sports Tennis.
“I want to work on doing things differently to try and bridge the gap between where I am now and where I want to be.
“I’m going to use the season to take pressure off, try and be more aggressive and play the way I want to more so, so it can help me on the other surfaces.
” I had some time off after Madrid and I’m working on feeling a bit more comfortable on this surface. I don’t think I’m fully there yet, but I’m just putting in the hard work and keeping going.
“It’s a good challenge for my game. I want to try and bridge the gap from where I am now to where I want to be.
“I just want to use this season to take the pressure off and play the way I want to so it can help me on the other surfaces.
“It is exciting, it does feel like a bit of a fresh start with the way I am approaching everything, with the people I have around, with my mindset and outlook.
“I feel more optimistic, I feel pretty positive about things going forward. I’m just taking it day by day and trying to stay consistent.”
Mark Petchey is working with Raducanu once again in his role as a part-time coach and she is enjoying the freshness he has brought to her camp since he started working with her during her run to the Miami Open quarter-finals in March.
“He’s not a super technical coach, there are certain tweaks, as always, but that is something I am going away from,” she continued..
“I have been very technical in the past, there has been a time and a place for that because I needed to make improvements.
“But from now on, it’s more about doing the right things, taking the ball on more, and just repetition of certain drills and patterns, which he is very good at setting up.”
Raducanu will discover who her first-round opponent in Rome will be when qualifying finishes on Tuesday and she could then face world No 20 Ekaterina Alexandrova in her second-round match.
Alexandrova is a player she beat at the Australian Open in January, but she may be less confident of getting a result in the re-match on a clay court.
