It was a tournament that began with Emma Raducanu being forced to answer questions about the departure of her latest coach after just one match.
Just a week on and how the tables have turned.
Having won four matches in a row for the first time since winning the US Open back in 2021, Raducanu is now into the quarter-finals at the Miami Open where she will face World No.4 Jessica Pegula.
It represents arguably the biggest match of the Briton’s career since that breakthrough moment at Flushing Meadows four and a half years ago, but the journey back to this point has not been easy.
Raducanu has battled serious injuries, a tumble down the rankings, and terrifying ordeals off the court but now appears to finally be thriving – so what’s changed?
Searching for ‘small doses of happiness’
Expectation has weighed heavy on Raducanu ever since her surprise Grand Slam triumph in 2021 and that pressure has stunted the 22-year-olds progress.
In trying to rediscover that winning formula, she has not been afraid to chop and change, already burning through eight coaches in her relatively short career as a pro.
But perhaps it is no coincidence that she is now playing her best tennis while not having a full-time coach and when the focus all week has simply been on keeping things familiar and fun.
‘I feel comfortable. I feel like in my environment, in my surroundings with the people I’m with, I feel pretty relaxed, and I can be myself and expressive and true to myself. That’s important for me,’ Raducanu said after her last-16 win in Miami.
‘I’m someone who works really hard and can be really intense, but sometimes too intense. I guess in that way it’s harder to be extremely focused when you need to be on the match court because you’re focused from the first minute to the last.’
The mini-trampoline game Spikeball has been the secret weapon of choice to help her relax before matches with her new-look team. ‘They bring small doses of happiness that I guess just keep you going, the small things,’ she explained.
They, in this case, are Mark Petchey and Jane O’Donoghue who have been alongside Raducanu this week.
O’Donoghue, her childhood mentor and former LTA coach, has been a long-time presence on the road with Raducanu, while Petchey represents another familiar face having been involved in her development in her teen years.
Their presence has clearly been beneficial for Raducanu.
‘To have familiar faces, people that I knew, people that have really gone through the trenches with me, but also can kind of lift me up at the same time, that I think made a big difference,’ she explained in the week.
‘Just having them around, people that I really trust, yeah, I think that’s probably when I started feeling a bit better off the court. That translated on the court. I was freer.’
Improvements and good fortune on the court
The sudden turnaround in fortunes for Raducanu can’t solely be attributed to a more relaxed feel to her camp.
In fact, in some cases it has been the hard work put in away from the spotlight that has paid dividends the most.
Her decision to bring on board renowned fitness coach Yutaka Nakamura in December appears to have had an immediate impact. Previously, Raducanu was the one breaking down in lengthier matches but now she appears more durable than ever.
Her serve appeared to be a major weakness during her poor run of form early in the year but that too has improved markedly, while her brief stint with Vladimir Platenik does seem to have ironed out some more weaknesses.
‘The work that we did before the tournament, it was only maybe two weeks, ten days, but we did some really good work. I think I’m getting some benefits on the court right now from what we did,’ Raducanu admitted when speaking about the Slovakian coach.
The next step
While Raducannu impressed in her win over top-ten opponent Emma Navarro earlier in the tournament, the Brit now faces a sterner test again Pegula in the last-eight.
And regardless of the result, after Miami, she will move back inside the world’s top 50 for the first time since August 2022.
That rise should provide a welcome boost, but any evidence of any major resurgence will have to be backed up by consistent performances over the next few months, something which has rarely been a feature of her career.
Can Raducanu beat World No.4 Pegula?
Wednesday’s quarter-final won’t be an easy task by any means; Pegula, 31, heads into the clash as the favourite given her significantly higher ranking (world No.4) and much bigger total of WTA Tour trophies (seven).
Earlier this month, Pegula clinched the ATX Open title in Texas, and even the biggest of Raducanu fans accept that this will be a very tough match against a brilliant player who finished as a Grand Slam runner-up less than 12 months ago.
Raducanu, though, has nothing to lose. She has already enjoyed a great run in Miami to secure her return to the world top 50. No-one really expected her to progress this far after a first-round exit at Indian Wells so the pressure is off and will allow her to go out and play her game to the highest level. Raducanu, 22, has shown she is more than capable of beating top-10 opponents and defeated Pegula on grass at the Eastbourne International last year.
Raducanu is known for her aggressive style with powerful groundstrokes and her two-handed backhand could cause Pegula a lot of problems. Pegula doesn’t serve very hard and is considered more of an all-rounder.
Although Pegula beat Raducanu in their only other meeting on a hard court at the 2022 Western & Southern Open, that was some time ago. Raducanu will instead be focused on continuing her best winning run since her stunning US Open victory in 2021 and will hope her opponent crumbles under the pressure of playing in front of a home crowd as she attempts to lift the second trophy of her career.
Prediction: Raducanu win in three sets
Liam Grace | Metro Sports Reporter
Raducanu favours the fast-paced hard courts seen in the US, but she will soon have to adjust to the slower pace of clay courts as she hopeflly looks to gear up for the French Open.
The 22-year-old has not been present at the French Open for the last two years and her only appearance at Roland Garros ended in the second round back in 2022.
Wimbledon will also be in her mind later in the summer, too, having reached the fourth round on two occasions in front of home fans.
There is still some way to go to rediscover the ‘fear factor’ that Boris Becker believed Raducanu had lost when speaking to Metro earlier in the year.
But after her rediscovering her competitive spirit and embracing her underdog tag in the Sunshine State, things are starting to look brighter than ever for Britain’s best-known talent.
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