Former British tennis star Laura Robson thinks Emma Raducanu has the potential to be a very good clay-court player. Last year, Raducanu competed in her first couple of clay tournaments as a pro. Going into the 2022 clay season, there wasn’t really any expectation on Raducanu since clay was considered her weakest surface and she didn’t have much experience on the dirt.
But in her very first clay tournament as a pro, Raducanu made the Stuttgart quarterfinal before suffering a 6-4 6-4 loss to world No 1 Iga Swiatek. Raducanu also had a solid run at a WTA 1000 event in Madrid, where she made the round-of-16.
In the end, Raducanu concluded her clay season with a solid 5-4 record.
Robson thinks Raducanu can do well on clay
“I actually think she’s pretty good on clay anyway. Last year she went into the season thinking ‘it’s just going to be a bit of a learning experience for me’.
You could tell that she was trying new things on the clay court, trying to add a little bit more spin to her forehand side. But she played well in Madrid, she won a couple of matches there, she had some good result and you feel like maybe that’s the kind of court that’s going to suit her game the most.
Something that’s a little bit faster and takes on the pace slightly more than the heavy conditions that you can get in Rome and in some of the lead up tournaments to Paris. I think with the way that she hits the ball, she can almost hit through the conditions if needed.
It just has to keep going after her shots, which I know she’s been working on at the moment,” Robson told Eurosport. Raducanu is scheduled to again kick off her clay season in Stuttgart – the event is starting on April 17th.
