Secrets of success for teen champion of dreams
An eye for detail that matches her talent has ensured Raducanu is fulfilling her potential, writes Molly Mcelwee and
Emma Raducanu was eight when her strength-and-conditioning coach set her a challenge. “How many press-ups do you think you can do in 60 seconds?” Raducanu answered with 48 perfectly planted reps while coach Suzanne Williams clicked her stopwatch in disbelief. “No knees, feet on the floor, the flattest back plank body … she just smashed it,” says Williams, who coached Raducanu at the Parklangley club from age seven to 11.
A decade on, Williams watched in similar awe as the precocious child she once knew steamrollered to the US Open title this month, aged just 18. From coolly hitting an ace on championship point, to delivering a message in Mandarin to hundreds of millions of new fans in China, the Bromley teen is unequivocally the champion of dreams.
Or, as Martina Navratilova put it, after witnessing Raducanu become the first qualifier to win a grand-slam title, “She came out of the box all put together already, no batteries needed – she’s the whole package” – the awestruck tone of an 18-time major champion apparent in every word.
For those who know her best, the shock factor was only in how quickly her success had come. Raducanu had long been primed for this, leaving the adults who played a part in her development speechless many times over the years.
Racket-stringer Huw Phillips recalls first meeting Raducanu at a competition in 2016
‘She was remarkable. Once I demonstrated something, she got it straight away – it saved so much development time’
in Manchester. The only player to arrive with her strings in an envelope, pre-cut, rather than on a reel, she made an instant impression. Phillips says it was indicative of the Raducanu family’s preference to tread a unique path. “Each envelope had handwritten on them: ‘These are the mains, these are the crosses,”’ Phillips recalls. “Even at Wimbledon this year, they’ve been like that.”
It is a meticulous approach to detail for a junior, that has continued into her professional career – and one that makes economic sense. Raducanu’s father used to string her rackets and preferred to cut his own lengths. Kids who casually leave behind full reels of string are wasting £200 of their parents’ money. The Raducanu’s thriftiness shows a measure of good management, underlining the relatively modest family background in which she was raised.
Last November, Raducanu switched from recreational rackets to a professional model. Phillips was there at the National Tennis Centre, assisting Andy Murray’s assistant coach Mark Petchey during a four-hour session. It was then that he noticed Raducanu’s increasing engagement in the finer, technical, details of her game.
“She knew what she wanted, working with Petchey on what she was getting from different frames. She was much more in tune with it, which is positive, because you generally find the players that don’t give a monkey’s, then don’t give a monkey’s with other stuff as well. The better players, they know their equipment – Murray knows what strings he has, the string tension, same with [Roger] Federer.”
Phillips says the strings she is using now – “two different kinds of soft Poly” – are perfectly suited to her young body. “It’s quite soft on joints. It’s not a stiff polyester that might hurt her shoulder while she’s growing. So, it’s very sensible and she’s stuck with it and, as a combination, it’s very, very nice.”
That strategic bridging of her career from junior to professional is not a new phenomenon in Raducanu’s dizzying trajectory. Beyond the push-ups, Williams had long been preparing Raducanu for the kind of training that would be expected of her down the line, once her body developed. “Long-term athlete-development models suggest that there are certain windows, where if you don’t prioritise certain training modalities – like speed or strength or co-ordination – you never get them back,” Williams says. “She didn’t miss them, because she has a team making sure that those things are being hit at the right time.”
The story goes all the way back to those early days when, as a seven-year-old with her own strength-and-conditioning coach, Williams could already see what made Raducanu stand out. “It took seconds of watching her to say that something was very different – she was quite remarkable,” she says. “Once I demonstrated something, she just got it straight away – it saved so much development time. We do what we do, but then someone like Emma uses it in a way that no one else has.”
That astonishing strength and power, in a young woman’s body that is strong but slight, has helped to characterise her game, manifesting in the speed of her serves and her agility. It is Gareth Shelbourne, taking the baton from Williams when Raducanu was 12, who looks after that responsibility now. Shelbourne got her to a stage where she
‘She was just on a completely different level to everybody else with a racket. And at sports day, she would win all the races, too’
was hip-thrusting 200kg in the gym, aged just 16 – a moment that stopped former British No1 Heather Watson in her tracks at a 2019 training camp in Miami. “Most of the guys can’t do that,” Watson exclaimed.
Raducanu’s coaching team have been ever-evolving, but always featured her father, Ian. He is said to have introduced a conveyor belt of coaches through her teens, according to specific shots she was honing at the time. This flux made her less reliant on the guidance of one person or environment – as did continuing to compete in other sports, including motocross and karting. Gaining the advice of a specific expert for each weapon Raducanu has at her disposal also showed an intense attention to detail.
One of her former coaches, Matt James, met Raducanu at 15. All he knew then was that she was the youngest winner of a junior ITF tournament, aged 13. Watching her play the girls tournament at Wimbledon, it was her confidence that struck him. “Nothing fazed her, she thrived on the pressure even at that age,” James told Telegraph Sport in July. “She had this look and confidence walking onto court – she just believed that she was going to win the match, and you had that feeling as well. I would use the words ‘almost inevitable’, it just felt like she’s going to be a real top player.”
Tennis experts knew it, but even those outside the sport recall a talent so obviously outstanding that they made their own predictions. Rebecca Rodgers, Raducanu’s reception-grade teacher at Bickley Primary School, saw her talent emerge when a tennis coach joined the class PE session. “Emma was just on a completely different level to everybody else. She picked up her racket and was just rallying with him. She would always be very good when it comes to sports day, too, she’d win all the races.” Rodgers went home and told her parents she had a future Wimbledon champion in her class. During a whirlwind summer, Raducanu’s grounded approach to the chaos around her has been noticeable. In the weeks after taking Wimbledon by storm, as well as accepting invites to the British Grand Prix and Wembley Stadium for the Euros, she took time to visit her former primary school to give out medals on sports day. While she took the flashing lights and red carpets of New York in her stride, her mother, Renee, attended a low-key Kent LTA event, picking up an award on Raducanu’s behalf. Raducanu – along with the help and support of those around her – will take the reins when it matters. As speculation grows over her potential impact on British tennis, and her multi-million pound marketability, those who have known her growing up vouch for her ability to manage the upheaval with the same poise she showed at Flushing Meadows. “Based on the child that I knew, she’s always had a growth mindset and saw tasks as challenges rather than pressure,” Williams says. This next phase of her journey may seem daunting to the outside world, but as Navratilova so wisely noted, Raducanu has every tool in the box to nail it.