Emma Raducanu will return to New York, and former ATP player and fellow Brit Tim Henman has backed her to do well at the place where she wrote history.
Doing really well in New York is nothing new for Raducanu, who won her maiden and only Grand Slam trophy at the 2021 US Open. It was a historic run, as she became the first-ever qualifier to win a major.
The conditions in New York simply fit with how Raducanu loves to play tennis - attacking. She is one of the cleanest ball-strikers on the WTA Tour, at least when she finds her best tennis, and her level has been close to that this year when she played.
Raducanu's most recent outing at the Citi Open in Washington was a quarter-final loss to Paula Badosa, and she will be among the dark horses at Flushing Meadows, not only because of her previous run, but also because of her recent form.
That's at least the opinion of Tim Henman, who remembers her historic US Open run. He fondly spoke about it in a talk with Express Sport when he proclaimed her story incredible, but also spoke about her chances of doing well at the US Open again, as well as her journey this season.
"Raducanu's story and her journey in professional tennis is incredible, it's really sort of unheard of, unheralded, that with no real foundation she was able to qualify and win the US Open winning 10 matches in a row without dropping a set."
"Over the last six months, after she had those operations, that really gave her perfect opportunity to step away from the game and actually build the foundations on the practice court, in the gym, to build up that physical resilience."
While Raducanu has demonstrated a convincing level overall this year and recently, that's not a guarantee that she will do well at the US Open. In fact, her 2021 run came after a lackluster preparation for the US Open.
Still, that run was obviously one that happens once in a lifetime. Henman backed her to do well but also urged her fans to be patient because she is still a fairly young and inexperienced tennis player.
"When you look at the tennis that she's played this year - it hasn't been a massive amount of tennis - but when she has played, she played fantastically well. Likewise, you look at her in terms of the race, she's top 50 in the race on a fairly limited schedule."
"To me, Raducanu is absolutely moving in the right direction and again, it's really important to stay patient. She's still so young, we've seen the tennis she's capable of. Fingers crossed she can have another good run in New York."
The draw will be crucial for Raducanu because a bit easier draw could make all the difference for her, especially since she will need to play herself into the rhythm in the early rounds.
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