WTA legend says one of ‘these two things’ is causing Emma Raducanu problems

Kim Clijsters says there are only two reasons that come to mind when she thinks about Emma Raducanu’s struggles. The former four-time Grand Slam champion believes the 21-year-old is either “being led by the wrong people” or she is just struggling mentally with everything that comes her way.

After her historic victory at the US Open in 2021 and the huge battle with injuries and poor and inconsistent results, the Briton looks much better on court this year, as she has managed to stay healthy and also achieve some notable results. However, not everything is still perfect, as the former world number 10 has made some questionable decisions during the year, leaving everyone wondering what the logic was behind it.

When the clay court season began, Raducanu made a solid start, reaching the quarterfinals of Stuttgart before losing to world No. 1 Iga Swiatek. But then she lost in the first round of the Madrid Open and opted to skip the Rome Open and the French Open and miss the rest of the clay court swing.

The British tennis player decided to skip the Paris Olympics so she could focus on her North American hard court career. But after playing in Washington, she unfortunately missed the WTA 1000 tournaments in Toronto and Cincinnati, despite being in perfect health.

The decision turned out to be disastrous, as Raducanu was defeated by Sofia Kenin in the first round of the US Open and had to cry afterwards.

“There are two things that I think could be the reason… it could be that you don’t have the right people around you to guide you and say, ‘Okay, this is important for you, like the planning, enough weeks of rest in between, like training blocks to improve, to relax mentally,’” Clijsters said on the Served with Andy Roddick podcast.

Or is it her? Is there other stuff going on in her head where she’s just fed up with the media, pressure… whatever. It’s just those two things that could be the cause. I don’t know enough about her, I don’t know her personally, I don’t know her team, I really don’t know much about that whole situation. I’m sorry, but when you have a team of coaches around you or whoever is in charge, there’s clearly deception going on.”

Another legend had the same view of Raducanu’s battle

As mentioned above, the 21-year-old looked absolutely broken and devastated after Kenin handed her a 6-1 3-6 6-4 first-round defeat at Flushing Meadows. When asked to comment on the Briton’s case, tennis icon Martina Navratilova suggested that the 2021 US Open winner should give herself “responsibility” for everything – only work with people she completely trusts – and that she should play more and increase her stress tolerance level.

“Emma needs to be in charge and she’s old enough to know what to do – surround yourself with good people and then trust them, and give it time so you can see the results. Technically she’s great, but she needs more match play. I still don’t think she’s as fit as she should be. I think if you don’t want to play the Olympics because it’s a different surface, you need to fix your body. Maybe it’s just not equipped for this kind of stress. She needs to think long term… not tomorrow or next week,” Navratilova explained.

Raducanu admitted she made a mistake

After seeing her schedule change heavily criticized, the 21-year-old defended herself before the start of the US Open, claiming she had some great training sessions and knew what she was doing. But then her run at Flushing Meadows ended at the earliest possible stage.

“I feel down, I feel sad. This is obviously a tournament where I really want to do well, so…” said the Briton after her early exit in New York.

During the same press conference, an emotional Raducanu admitted that it probably would have been better to play more in the run-up to the final Grand Slam of the season and said she would try to make smarter decisions about her planning in the future.

“I was maybe a little bit slow to start. Yeah, I probably would have liked to play a little bit more before I went into the US Open. You know, I know when I have a lot of matches, like any other player, you feel really good. You feel like everything is automatic. So yeah, I think I can learn from it. And you know, I manage my schedule a little bit differently,” Raducanu noted.