Emma Raducanu will have a huge mental advantage on her comeback, according to former WTA player Andrea Petkovic.
After missing much of last year due to a few surgeries, Raducanu returned to tennis earlier this year. She didn't play all that well at the start, losing multiple matches, but she did well at Indian Wells, winning a couple of them.
She's back on clay, preparing for the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, which will be her first event on the surface. It's not a surface she's played on too much, but she can certainly do well on it, as evidenced by a couple of decent matches in the past.
Former player Petkovic, who talked to Eurosport, believes her comeback success is not in question because she's young and not afraid to go all the way, having done it in the past.
"First and foremost: her youth. If I was as young as she is, I would still believe I could do anything. She has the advantage that she won't be afraid of winning a tournament if she gets to the second week of a Grand Slam event or goes far in a competition again. Simply because she has already done it once at the US Open."
That experience can't be bought, and not many players have. You have to go through it, and despite her age, Raducanu has quite a bit of experience from the biggest stages.
It's certainly something she would rather have than not, and there is less pressure once she gets there. Raducanu even talked about it before admitting that while winning it created more pressure but also less because she's done it. She's a Grand Slam winner.
"That's a huge mental advantage that can never be taken away from her again. This title just came a little too quickly. She won more matches in New York than she had previously played on the WTA Tour."
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