Emma Raducanu: How does British No. 1 become more 'robust' and how will she do on clay this season?

How does one become robust?

It’s not a quality that often pops up in victory speeches. “I was really pleased with my robustness in that match,” said no tennis player ever. Yet being robust – durable, sturdy, able to withstand and endure – is clearly an important attribute for a champion. Winning a Grand Slam title requires robustness.

Emma Raducanu knows this well. She didn’t just endure for two weeks when she won the US Open last summer, she tacked on another three wins beforehand as she had to come through qualifying to make the main draw. At no point during her remarkable run in New York did Raducanu appear fatigued, hindered by injury, or wavering physically.

Yet, eight months on, Raducanu’s robustness is under the spotlight.

So far this season she has had blisters on her hand at the Australian Open, a thigh and hip problem in Mexico, a stiff back in Indian Wells, and a foot blister in the Billie Jean King Cup. She also revealed that she has “no toenails” due to the work she has been putting in ahead of her first clay season on the WTA Tour.

Add 2022’s issues to the breathing problems that forced her to retire at Wimbledon last year and illness at the Transylvania Open, and there are signs of an early-career theme. Even as a junior Raducanu said she did not have the “opportunity to compete” as much as she wanted due to “various reasons, injuries, school, niggles”.

Raducanu had made a positive start in Prague at the weekend, beating world No. 50 Tereza Martincova 7-5 7-5 in her first clay-court match at tour level. But a blister on her foot in her following match “completely stopped” her “from moving” as she lost 6-1 6-1 to Marketa Vondrousova in only 62 minutes.

“It does take time for a player to get used to life on the tour and become more robust,” said Great Britain’s Billie Jean King Cup captain Anne Keothavong.

“And she certainly needs to become more robust. I don’t think that’s any secret and she’s working on it. The more she puts herself out there, the more she continues to test herself against the very best, she’ll figure out a way that works for her.”

Perhaps these are just growing pains - literal and metaphorical – for Raducanu. She played her first WTA Tour main-draw match less than a year ago and her body has never experienced the workload she has asked of it over the last few months. She’s also working with a new coach, Torben Beltz, and trying to improve physically so she can compete with the world’s best on a weekly basis. “I've just got to get stronger,” she acknowledged after losing to Petra Martic at Indian Wells.

Interestingly, Will Herbert, the physio who worked with Raducanu at the US Open, said she was “exhausted” before the tournament even started, having played in America for three weeks in a row.

“My memory of seeing Emma for the first time in New York is that her body was toast. She was exhausted. She had some pretty successful weeks in Chicago so her body was a bit of a mess.

“Our initial aim was to get her through 'quallies'. That's where we felt she was. The mobility in her back had gone and muscles were fatigued. Our aim was to try and restore normal movement."

Raducanu labelled Herbert “The Mechanic” for the work he did with her during the tournament and he has continued to join her at some events since. But Raducanu has not yet shown anywhere near the same high-level consistency she did in New York.

There have been encouraging signs in her last two losses on the WTA Tour at Indian Wells and the Miami Open, both three-set matches that Raducanu seemed in position to win. Even against Daria Saville at the Guadalajara Open in February, Raducanu was two points from victory before retiring in the third set of a match that lasted three hours and 36 minutes, the longest of the WTA season.

Raducanu says she takes positives from the displays, even if the results did not go her way. “Of course it’s frustrating but in some sort of twisted way it gives me a sense of confidence and relief that I don’t think it’s my tennis that’s the issue. As soon as I sort all of these out and keep building on my tennis level then I think I’ll be able to put out good matches back to back.”

One of the quirks of Raducanu’s career so far is that her run of 10 wins in a row at the US Open is one of only four times that she has won successive matches at a tournament. “She’s doing it back to front,” former British No. 1 Tim Henman told Eurosport earlier this year. “I always think that the time to judge these young players is when they've played every tournament twice.”

Another ex-British No. 1 Greg Rusedski said in November that he thinks it will take Raducanu “18 months to adjust”.

Raducanu’s latest issue does not seem as though it is going to hold her back from playing in Stuttgart at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix this week. The event features seven of the top 10 players in the world, including world No. 1 Iga Swiatek, and Raducanu opens against qualifier Storm Sanders in her first WTA clay tournament.

Will Raducanu be more robust by the end of the clay season? Perhaps not, perhaps it will take longer. Novak Djokovic had injury issues at the start of his career, retiring from seven matches in his first three seasons on tour. Now he is one of the most durable players around. Raducanu will grow and improve at her own pace, but more matches should help her progression.