Another season has come and gone without Emma Raducanu winning a title anywhere on the WTA Tour.
But while it’s agonising to point that out – because she’s a fantastic tennis player – it’s not all doom and gloom for the Briton once ranked world No.10.
After a horrible and unlucky spell with injury problems, there have been significant signs in 2025 that Raducanu is finally getting back to her best.
After all, the 22-year-old has returned to the world top 30 for the first time in over three years. That’s a huge achievement and should be applauded.
The fact remains, though, that it’s been over four years since Raducanu won the US Open and she still hasn’t landed a second trophy since.
We know she can beat some of the best players on the planet when at the top of her game – so what went wrong this year – and how can she fix it?
Lessons from Washington and Miami
Raducanu, who has ended the 2025 season early due to illness, produced her performances this year at the Washington Open and Miami Open.
In Washington, she reached the semi-finals with impressive wins over seventh-seed Marta Kostyuk, four-time major champion Naomi Osaka and former world No.3 Maria Sakkari. But after all that hard work, she was beaten by unseeded Russian Anna Kalinskaya 6-4 6-3 in the last four.
In the pressure moments, Raducanu couldn’t consistently produce the necessary defensive shots to break back. Raducanu also became particularly vulnerable in her service games when her first serve didn’t land.
She needs to make defensive improvements – especially facing aggressive players – and focus on winning more points with her second serve.
In Miami, Raducanu beat the likes of eighth-seed Emma Navarro and this year’s runner-up at both Wimbledon and the US Open, Amanda Anisimova. She then fell short to Jessica Pegula in the quarter-finals, 6-4 6-7 2-6.
To be fair to Raducanu, there wasn’t much she could’ve done about this one, having struggled with dizziness and requiring a medical time-out, which affected her physical and mental state going into the deciding set.
But it does reinforce the fact that she needs to play consistently in tournaments all year to be able to adjust to all temperatures, even when it’s extremely hot, as it was in the Sunshine State.
She does appear to be doing that more than before with Raducanu playing in 22 tournaments this year, seven more than 2024, 17 more than 2023 – when she had triple surgery – and three more than 2022.
Has appointing Francis Roig changed her game?
It was encouraging to see Raducanu has extended her partnership with coach Francis Roig, with the pair agreeing to work together again in 2026.
Having spent so long working in Rafael Nadal’s camp, Roig is perfect for Raducanu and we are already starting to see a number of improvements.
Roig has been helping Raducanu to refine her shots so that she doesn’t go for extremely aggressive winners too early, while also aiming to reduce her amount of unforced errors and tighten up consistency.
The move away from perfectionism has resulted in less risks in big moments rather than forcing unnecessary, low-percentage shots.
For too long, Raducanu and chopped and changed her coaches and it seems she’s finally settled with Roig. That can only be a good thing.
What else must Emma Raducanu work on?
Simply put, Raducanu needs to learn to win when she’s not playing her best tennis.
The Briton needs a Plan B – and even a Plan C – when things aren’t going her way like changing the pace, using higher topspin and throwing in more slices to disrupt the rhythm of her opponents.
Raducanu could also win more free points by following deep approach shots or short slices in, rather than staying at the baseline for every rally.
Speaking exclusively to Metro earlier this year about Raducanu, former Wimbledon finalist Olga Morozova said: ‘You have to be aggressive and you have to go to the net. But you need to know exactly how to approach it.
‘I think she’s doing it quite well, because I was watching her at the Italian Open. She can do it. She’s working on it. Sometimes when she comes to the net she wins the point quite nicely and I think she has to do that more often.’
Raducanu needs to learn to absorb power from big hitters like Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina – in order to counterpunch like Iga Swiatek.
Like all tennis players, Raducanu also needs to work on her mental resilience, particularly her reset routine when she’s not playing her best.
If she can do all that – win ugly, build up the mental side of her game, become more durable, improve her net play and stick with Roig as her coach… surely a trophy is coming in 2026.