Raducanu’s forehand is broken
Why the British No 1 has lost power and how she can fix the stroke that served her so well in winning the US Open
The symptoms
The issues with Emma Raducanu’s game can be diagnosed in a sentence. To adapt a phrase from Bill Clinton’s White House campaign in 1992: “It’s the forehand, stupid.”
If you go back and watch Wednesday’s match against Caroline Garcia, you will not see Raducanu’s forehand spraying errors. The problem is that she was not actually doing anything with the ball.
As one coach put it: “She was just putting her forehand back in court, and that allowed Garcia to play the match entirely on her own terms.” It was almost as if Raducanu was the straight woman in a comedy sketch, setting up the gags for the other person to put away.
This was not the Raducanu who reached the fourth round of last year’s Wimbledon. And it certainly was not the Raducanu who won last September’s US Open.
The reasons
To understand the regression in Raducanu’s forehand, you need to look at her history.
Her double-handed backhand has always been her favourite wing. It is completely natural, a shot she does not even have to think about, and her sound technique means that it is never going to fold under pressure.
The forehand is a different story. Raducanu grew up hitting forehands with a very closed “semi-western” grip, and then spent a lot of time over the past two or three years trying to open that grip up.
This remedial work was started by the Belgian coach Philippe Dehaes, and then Mark Petchey took over when the pandemic prevented Dehaes from travelling across the Channel from his native Belgium.
By the US Open, her mechanics were as close to perfect as anyone could expect. Raducanu was meeting the ball early, taking it out in front and transferring her weight beautifully through the shot. But these were not skills that were deeply embedded in her tennis psyche. Everything just came together perfectly for those three magical weeks.
Since the US Open, Raducanu’s forehand has begun to slip back towards old habits, and she has lost confidence on the shot. It has become stiff and extremely underpowered by the standards that she aspires to.
There is no sign of the forehand up the line – the high-risk, highreward option – that made such an impact on her opponents in New York. Even the forehand drive volleys that she used to fine effect last year have completely disappeared from her game.
The solutions
This, too, is simple. Raducanu needs a coach to take the reins and dictate the way she practises. “You’d probably only need four to six weeks to whip the forehand into shape,” one coach said.
“But it’s a matter of committing to a philosophy of what you’re trying to do. There doesn’t seem to be any pattern to what’s going on at the moment, with all the chopping and changing. So even if you did fix the issue, it probably wouldn’t stay fixed for long.”
People close to the Raducanus say that there is little prospect of a significant long-term appointment being made. Her father, Ian, is wellknown to have a low opinion of coaches in general. He feels that they are best used in short bursts, on the basis that most of them only have one or two useful things to say.
Ian Raducanu is also said to bemoan how expensive the whole sport is, even though his daughter is making up to £10million a year from endorsements. Feedback from coaches who have been sounded out about possible work with Emma suggests that the family may be reluctant to invest.
“I look at the way Emma’s tennis has slid back since last summer, and it is worrying,” one experienced coach said.
“Do you remember how Eugenie Bouchard had that one incredible season in 2014 where she beat a stack of top players and reached the Wimbledon final?” the coach added. “What happened next was that Bouchard seemed to take an interest in fashion and photoshoots and we hardly saw her on the big stage again.
“If Emma doesn’t do something to fix her coaching situation, and do it soon, I fear that she could go down the same road.”