At the start of the 2022 season, Emma Raducanu struggled on the tennis courts, as she lost the majority of the matches; however, during the clay-court swing, she seems to be back at her top level again.
Many doubts were raised about Raducanu's career as the 2021 US Open champion was 2-5 on the hard courts this season. However, with the start of the clay-court part of the season, the young Brit triumphed in four out of five matches she played, losing only to the world number 1, Iga Swiatek at the 2022 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart.
Now, she's competing at the 2022 Madrid Open where she will take on Anhelina Kalinina in the third round of the tournament after beating Tereza Martincova in the first round and overcoming also Marta Kostyuk in the second round.
After her second-round match, the British youngster was clearly happy with how she dealt with the match, and also the most recent challenges that she had to face on her journey.
"Just over the last six months, I've definitely gone through a lot of challenges and I feel like now in the recent weeks, I've definitely come to terms and have started enjoying the journey. It is just coming back from getting knocked down again and again and again."
"And then finally, you feel like you're yourself again. Is it the best I have played since September? Yeah I feel like I've been practising really well in the last few weeks and definitely brought a lot of confidence from that."
According to Raducanu, she's playing her best tennis since September, when she won the memorable US Open title. She knows that she can practice well, but for the youngster, it was all about replicating that on the match court.
"I just thought to myself, just looking at my level on the practice court like: ‘Why don't you just replicate it on the match court and swing as freely and go for your shots as much’ and I definitely feel like I'm in a really good space with my tennis."
"I think this is the most amount of matches I have played in a short space of time and I feel it definitely helps because at the end of last year, it was tough."
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