Alex Corretja expects Emma Raducanu to thrive after US Open: ‘Whatever happens, it will begin the era of Emma'

ByAlexander Netherton

Updated 25/08/2022 at 14:57 GMT

Last year, British teenager Emma Raducanu secured a brilliant and shocking victory at the 2021 US Open. Since then, her game has been found lacking but Alex Corretja told Eurosport that he believes the familiarity of the venue could turn her season around and see her improve in the coming weeks and months afterwards.

Eurosport expert Alex Corretja is predicting the ‘age of Emma’ Raducanu to follow the US Open.

The 19-year-old Briton won 2021’s US Open without dropping a set, but since last year’s triumph she has failed to match her form in New York.

Recent appearances stateside have suggested Raducanu is improving, however, and Corretja told Eurosport that he thinks a period of adjustment is an inevitable requirement.

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“I think she's showing that her tennis is still there,” he said of her recent uptick. “But she needs to understand also a little bit similar to what Alcaraz has been through, but for Alcaraz, it's been like, going big steps and bigger steps and bigger steps.

“For Emma, it was like the biggest step that you can make. And that's also difficult to deal with and to understand what's the new situation, and why everybody all of a sudden knows you everywhere you go in the world. And all the players know your game, which before they didn't know. So I think if she's capable of playing a few matches in New York, she might feel the atmosphere back.”

Corretja predicted that her best tennis may come post-New York.

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He said: “And when you go back to a tournament where you won the year before, you also always have the feeling like, you know how to deal with things there, with the wind, with the heat with the humidity, with the crowd, you know, but in a way, I think the best, it will come after she finishes the US Open, because I honestly believe that she will know how to be.

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“Okay, from now on what can I expect from my career? What did happen? It's not normal. I mean, it's very unusual, and it's difficult to swallow all these expectations.

"So I'm sure that once the US Open is finished, whatever happens if she loses the first round or if she wins the tournament again, whatever happens, it will begin the era of Emma. I mean, she will feel much more relief and much better in her expectations.”

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