'I’m reasonable enough to know that different surfaces favour different people': Emma Raducanu prepares for Sabalenka rematch on hardcourt

Emma Raducanu debuted with a win at the Cincinnati Open, defeating the Serb Olga Danilovic in the second round. The former US Open champion secured a spot as a seeded player in a WTA 1000 for the first time in over three years and had a first-round bye, debuting against the Serb, world No. 43, and comfortably beating her 6-3, 6-2.

The 22-year-old Brit went through several complicated years, with injuries and a lack of regularity that prevented her from taking a position among the best, as was expected when she lifted her first major title at just 18 years old. Raducanu, however, has had a 2025 in which the doubts have been cleared, and it has given her a boost in the ranking.

In fact, this is now 10 consecutive tournaments in which Raducanu debuts with a victory. The last time she fell in the inaugural match was back in March at Indian Wells, when she was surprised by the Japanese Moyuka Uchijima. Since then, she has a 21-10 record, consistently advancing in the ranking from No. 60 to No. 33.

To date, her best results so far this year include the semifinals of the DC Open three weeks ago and the quarterfinals reached at the Miami Open. She has already achieved 12 wins in WTA 1000 tournaments this season—surpassing the 11 she had accumulated from all her previous participations since 2021.

"My goal is to improve as a player" - Raducanu sets expectations after a confident Cincinnati win

Raducanu is already in the top 30 of the WTA Race (No. 27 so far), and she is looking to continue advancing positions to finish the year as high as possible. The player herself acknowledges that her main goals are not set on fighting for titles, but rather on continuing to improve her level and her results.

“I know there will be a time where I’ll be targeting big tournaments, Masters and Slams, but to be honest, right now, that’s not my goal. My goal is to improve as a player,” she said after the victory against Danilovic. “Bar the first game today, that was not very much fit, but other than that, I was pretty mature and disciplined in my performance.”

“I took care of my service games really well. And I knew that playing Olga, who’s really difficult and really dangerous as a lefty and with big strikes, it was going to be important.”

One of the topics that has surrounded Raducanu since she won the US Open title has been the difficulty in finding a coach she can keep for the long term. There have been up to nine different coaches, several of them in short periods. After separating from Nick Cavaday at the beginning of the year, she had a trial period with Vladimir Platenik and then a partial association with Mark Petchey, but without finding someone to guide her definitively.

Just a few days ago, Raducanu announced the hiring of Francisco Roig, former coach of Rafael Nadal—who was the right-hand man of Uncle Toni for a good part of the Spaniard's career—and who now has his first adventure as a WTA coach. For now, it has been an intense week of work between Roig and Raducanu: “My home this week so far has been the site. I’ve been here (for) like, 13 hours a day, every day, so part of that is training, a lot (of it is) the rain in between… but it’s actually a site that has been so nice actually to hang around, and it’s so modern.”

Raducanu's mindset shifts ahead of the Sabalenka matchup

Raducanu guaranteed a third-round duel against the world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, whom she already faced at Wimbledon a month ago, with the Belarusian winning 7-6, 6-4. Raducanu gave a good battle at SW19, but Sabalenka ended up winning in straight sets.

In the press conference, Raducanu acknowledged that the conditions at Wimbledon favored her, and that on hardcourts, the advantage will be with her rival this time. “I’m reasonable enough, and I guess honest enough with myself, to know that different surfaces favour different people, and where my game is at in comparison,” the former top-10 said. “So, I think the grass gave me a bit of an advantage (against Sabalenka), but we’ll see how it goes.”

“It’s hard to take a loss like that. At the same time, I’m playing Aryna, who is a great champion. I have to be proud of my effort. It does give me confidence because I think the problem before was that I felt like I was gulfs away from the very top.”

Start time (local): Not scheduled yet

Start time (your time): Not scheduled yet

Tournament: Cincinnati Open

Round: Round of 32