Emma Raducanu: Swimming free in 2023

If you were to lift the lid on the US Open trophy, in it you’d find all the fame and fortune one could ever desire, floating in a pool of insurmountable expectation and scrutiny. It is the ever-rising level of pressure that comes with such success that found Emma Raducanu treading water and gasping for air during the 2022 season.

Yet, as she begins her first strokes of the 2023 campaign, Raducanu can finally swim free without the heavy jacket of being a defending Grand Slam champion. In 2023, she can be a 20-year-old from Bromley, ranked 78th embarking on her second-full WTA season.

Her first length of the new year was a successful one. She stepped out in the ever-changing Auckland conditions against highly-rated Czech teen Linda Fruhvirtova, ranked one place below her. Despite dropping the opening set, the British no.1 fought back to see off the 17-year-old and earn her first win since September in Seoul.

What looks like a small victory in a long season, Raducanu managed to win her WTA season-opener for the first time and just a third WTA victory from a set down. Such mini-milestones can only add to the confidence of Bromley star.

A major milestone in the sights of the 2021 US Open champion is a first tour-level title.

“For a results goal, I’d say it's to win a title,” Raducanu said to the wtatennis.com. Yet, that’s not the top priority for the level-headed Brit.

“For 2023 my goal is to stay healthy for longer. I’m looking forward to working hard because I’ve got a better idea of what to expect now. So I’ll be less like a deer in the headlights," she said.

Raducanu starts 2023 one step ahead then 12 months ago. Although she suffered a wrist injury in October that stopped her playing tennis for two months, it gave her the opportunity to build her fitness - something she wasn’t afforded last year as a bout with Covid-19 prevented a much needed pre-season.

In addition to the long fitness block, she has paired up with Andy Murray’s former-trainer Jez Green.

“Jez is really good, he’s obviously so experienced, he’s worked with some of the top players, he’s been there through the journey with a lot of players who were young and then developed into top, top pros,” Raducanu said.

Green isn’t the only addition to Raducanu’s camp as 30-year-old Sebastian Sachs tries his hand at developing the former-Grand Slam champion, on a trial basis. The German notably aided world no.12 Belinda Bencic to an Olympic title. Over the last 18 months, four coaches have sat in the musical chair of Raducanu’s corner with all of them parting ways.

Before Sachs, Russian Dmitry Tursunov cited “red flags that couldn’t be ignored” as he decided not to continue their partnership in September. Tursunov’s criticisms fell on Raducanu’s team rather than the then-19 year old who he was full of praise for.

Geared with a new set of support staff, physio Will Herbert remains in the set-up, and a fresh bag of optimism, 2023 could be the year she not only finds her feet but starts to hit her stride.

This season began a far cry from her 0-6 1-6 drubbing at the hands of future-Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina, which was her only match before she made her Australian Open debut - she would exit in the second round with blisters that hampered her throughout the encounter.

She faces world no.105 Viktoria Kuzmova in the second-round of the ASB Classic in New Zealand. Any court-time Raducanu can get, she will take in the lead up to her second Australian Open - starting January 16 - where she enters a Grand Slam as an unseeded player for the first time.

Regardless of how the Briton fairs down under, the Year of the Rabbit could be the year she grabs by the bunny ears. Hailed as the year of hope, Raducanu will be wishing for better fortune this time around.