Emma Raducanu achieved something that has never been done before, and according to coach Rick Macci, it was not a fluke.
Winning a Grand Slam title is difficult, winning a Grand Slam title unseeded is even more difficult, as there’s a chance you would have to play the world no. 1 or similarly ranked player early on. But winning a Grand Slam title as a qualifier, while winning ten matches over almost three weeks, seems to be almost impossible.
And it was impossible for many, many years. But then, Emma Raducanu proved to everyone that it can be done, and her career has skyrocketed as she suddenly became one of the brightest stars on the WTA Tour.
Yet, the Brit has been struggling with injuries recently, and in relation to that, also her form. The seven-time USPTA Coach of the Year, Rick Macci, talked to Tennis-Infinity.com, and according to him, even though the external factors around Raducanu changed, she can still produce at the same level as she did before.
"Here's what changed: everything around her changed in the blink of an eye, but the last time I checked, there's still a racket, a ball, a net, and a court, and you're still a competitor. Everything around you changed."
"You went from kind of nothing, to millions of dollars. But when you disappear like that, people just start saying all kinds of stuff and you can kind of let that bother you. If her head's in the right place, and she has the right guidance, I have no doubt she can come back into the top 10."
The American coach admitted that he talked to Raducanu’s agent, and according to his own words, he would be able to help Raducanu with her game. However, Macci emphasizes that he’s not a travel coach, but rather does things differently.
“I actually talked to her agent, I actually reached out and said “I’d love to help this young lady, okay, I’d like to know what’s in her head.” Okay-obviously, I'm not a travel coach. I-I'd rather help build the box, than sit in the box. Okay, that's just kind of what I do, because I run a business, and I do things very, very differently.”
“So, at the end of the day, I could help her big time; mentally, technically, strategically. Listen, you don't qualify for a Grand Slam, win a Grand Slam and never lose a set, okay, if you don't have magic in a bottle, if you're not special mentally. So that means she must have good movement, she must have the mental strength and she has the firepower,- obviously I saw her ground strokes and the way she plays. So, she has the game.”
There are still some people that suggest Raducanu may have been lucky to win the 2021 US Open title, but Macci tells those people that it wasn’t a fluke. According to him, it’s impossible to lose the ability, and at the end of the day, it all comes down to motivation.
“You don't lose the ability, you don't lose the talent. You got that Grand Slam in your back pocket, that wasn't a fluke, if anybody thinks that. I know everybody else is getting better, but she'll get better too. But it comes down to how bad do you want it, and are you gonna die to win every single point? Because that hunger has to be there and sometimes that disappears knowing if you have all these other things going on in your life.”
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