Emma Raducanu made a surprise admission when she confirmed that her serve is being changed, hoping to make it better long-term by the time 2025 rolls around.
Raducanu has always been a very interesting player for analysts to observe. On the one hand, her approach and some choices regarding her coaching staff, as well as some other decisions, like her scheduling, were criticized for obvious reasons, but there are also plenty of things that she was praised for.
One thing in particular was her technique, which is very sound overall. It's not uncommon to see odd techniques in tennis, especially in very young players, but her technique was praised for being textbook for the sport.
Even so, she's currently making some changes when it comes to her serve. After her most recent win at the Korea Open, Raducanu admitted that she has been working on her serve.
She's not doing minor changes either; she's making significant changes with the hope of making her serve even better. There is plenty of risk involved, especially short term, and it showed in her second-round match at the 2024 Korea Open against Yuan Yue at times, but she's hoping that the decision pays off for next year.
"If you watch my serve over the past few months, since the clay season it's gone through a lot of iterations in terms of swing. In general, if you play a lot of tournaments, things move out of place without you really realising, and then it's harder to get the natural feeling back."
"We've been working hard the last week looking at the swing, and which swing suits me best. It's been pretty big changes, it's not like we're just changing the ball placement."
Despite tinkering with the serve potentially negatively impacting the final stages of her 2024 season, Raducanu hopes to finish strongly and set herself up for a good 2025 season.
Most of this year has been about the big picture for the 2021 US Open winner, and it's an interesting approach that might pay off. It's sensible in nature, but how things go in 2025 will ultimately be the best test.
"Me and my coach decided we were going to take a risk and we were going to tweak things. We know it might not pay off short-term. But one thing I do back myself on is I pick things up pretty quickly. In the first match it didn't transfer yet, but today it definitely did."
"I just have to think bigger-picture. My goals are finishing this season strong but inevitably to set myself up in the best way possible for next year, because next year I really want to hit the ground running."
Her next match in Seoul will be against Daria Kasatkina, a player Raducanu hasn't beaten before. Beating her will be very tough because it's not the best matchup for the Brit, but she's hopeful.
"I think these courts suit her because they bounce quite a bit. But for me, every time I get exposure to that top level of opponent, it's invaluable. It allows me to build confidence. It's a match where I don't really have anything to lose."
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