Former tennis player and Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli believes Emma Raducanu can make it back to the top 10 in the WTA Rankings, but the tennis analyst also acknowledges that the young British player still has a long way to go.
Following a long break in 2023, Raducanu has returned to competitive tennis at the start of the current season and is 3-4 overall.
The 21-year-old, who admitted that she needs more experience on the practice courts and more matches under her belt, has been questioned about her future after her most recent defeat to Anhelina Kalinina at the Qatar Open on Monday.
Raducanu said in a recent interview: “I think it’s going to come with more time, practicing as well as matches. I think it’s going to come with time and practice, and it’s hard for me to get used to just the tour schedule; it’s just like: tournament, back, tournament, just straight away.”
Bartoli evaluated Raducanu’s performance against Kalinina and concluded that the British player had physical difficulties in the closing moments of the game.
Bartoli expressed her remarks about Raduanu and said: “I felt towards the end of the second set she was getting a little tired and they had two long points when Emma was up 6-5 in the tie-break and you can see on the match point she was struggling physically, so it’s all of that you have to take in. A huge debrief has to be done with her team as to what’s going on now that she’s been able to play a few tournaments back to back and come up with a plan because you can see some of the shots are still there.”
Bartoli later said: “You can see that if she puts it together, she has absolutely the potential to come back in that top 10 but a lot of work needs to be done.”
Emma Raducanu in 2024
At the moment ranked no.262, Raducanu played her last match on the 12th of February when she surrendered to world no.30 Anhelina Kalinina 6-0 7-6(6) in the 1st round in Doha (draw).
At the moment, during this season Raducanu has achieved a composed 3-4 match record.
Emma Raducanu |
Embed from Getty Images |