British women’s singles number one Emma Raducanu admits she has a long road ahead of her to be ranked among the best after world number one Iga Swiatek humbled her in the fourth round of the BNP Paribas Open at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in Palm Springs, California. Despite Swiatek brushing her aside 6-3 6-1, there were plenty of positives for Raducanu to take home as she rebuilds after an injury-hit 2022 season.

Raducanu shot to fame in 2021 when she made her Grand Slam debut at Wimbledon after entering as a wildcard entry. The young Brit became the youngest British woman to reach the third round of Wimbledon since Elena Baltacha in 2002 with victories over Vitalia Diatchenko and Marketa Vondrousova. After qualifying for the 2021 US Open, Raducanu, then ranked 150th in the world, caused one of tennis’ greatest ever shocks by not only advancing to the final on her debut but bating Leylah Fernandez in two sets to become the first qualifier to win a Grand Slam as a qualifier in the Open Era.

Injuries Hit Raducanu’s Career Progression

Raducanu climbed to a career-high ranking of 19th in the world by the end of 2021, but it is fair to say she had struggled to reproduce her US Open-winning form over the past 12 months. The highly-rated 20-year-old is no longer a regular favorite with the best tennis Vegas odds from online sportsbooks after a mixture of poor form and niggling injuries. After contracting COVID-19 in late 2021, Raducanu struggled with blisters on her hands and feet, a lower leg injury, in addition to hurting her wrist in 2022.

The current year has seen injuries continue biting into Raducanu’s progress. First, she retired during the second round of the Auckland Open with an ankle injury and withdrew from the ATX Open due to tonsillitis. After being outclassed by Swiatek in what was a very businesslike performance from the Polish world number one, Raducanu admitted that Swiatek is streets ahead of her, as you would expect someone ranked 76 places above you in the WTA rankings, especially when it comes to physicality.

Speaking to the BBC Sport reporters following her defeat, Raducanu said, “I think that Iga played at a very good level and showed why she is number one in the world. She was ruthless with the way that she played. I think I was able to stay competitive for the beginning of the match, but ultimately she ground me down, and by the end of it, I was just taking way too long to recover from one rally.”

Taking the Positives From the Experience

There are some positives for Raducanu to take from this latest tournament. The fact she only decided to play her first-round match against Danka Kovinic 20 minutes before taking the court speaks a lot about her character and willingness to go the extra mile to achieve her goals. Second, in back-to-back matches, she defeated the Australian Open semifinalist Magda Linette and world number 13 Beatriz Haddad. Raducanu’s victory over Haddad was her best win by ranking since clinching the 2021 US Open title.

“I’ve very proud of myself,” Raducanu said, “Now it’s just about consistent work to physically get to where I want to be. I saw a taste of the level where number one is physically and how she is at the corners, repetitive and relentless. Yeah, I just couldn’t take that. I would say there is a very long way to go, but I’m definitely starting the right work now.”