Emma Raducanu tipped for ‘immediate changes’ after brutal Australian Open defeat to Iga Swiatek

Laura Robson has tipped Emma Raducanu to make ‘immediate changes’ to her game after her Australian Open exit to Iga Swiatek on Saturday.

Raducanu impressively reached the third round at Melbourne Park this year with superb wins over two players above her in the WTA standings.

The unseeded British star – world No.61 – eliminated 26th-seed Ekaterina Alexandrova and followed that up with a win over world No.35 Amanda Anisimova.

A clash with second-seed Swiatek proved to be a step too far, though, with the Polish five-time Grand Slam winner easily beating Raducanu 6-1 6-0.

Former British No.1 Robson feels it is ‘very clear’ what Raducanu must do the next time she steps back on the practice court as the 2021 US Open champion looks to return to the world top 10 for the first time since 2022.

Speaking on Eurosport, Robson said: ‘Well, the positives were that she was moving well. And, you know, when she was able to stay in the rally, she was starting to put together some good points.

‘But the difference for me was the intensity between the two of them. Iga played that kind of match 55 times in the last year and just knows what to do on there on the more important points. She was just able to step it up another game.

‘And, whereas Emma, who hasn’t played a tournament coming into this match and played two very different opponents in the first two rounds and two players who gave her a lot of unforced errors to work with. It was the complete opposite today.

‘Iga gave her absolutely nothing to work with, and she’s such a good front runner. Even when she was 6-0 4-0 up it was like she was playing the first point in the match, basically. So yeah, I can, you know, list of all the things that Swiatek did well because to me she played a tactically perfect match.

‘She was serving almost exclusively to Emma’s backhand because she knows what kind of ball she can get on the plus one shot back. And it was just the same point over and over and over.

‘So, yeah, I think in many ways that will be a bit of a learning curve for Emma to get back to the drawing board and think like, okay, if I want to challenge these top players, I need to train with this intensity, I need to play matches with this intensity and this is what she knows already.

‘And you know, she would have wished her preparation for this was a little different, but I think it was, yeah, the real standout of what was on show today.

‘Well, I think she’ll be the first one to say that it’s about getting matches and getting tournaments because, you know, when you step up to this level, Swiatek has played so many, you know, third round matches, some Grand Slams that she’s just comfortable.

‘And that was what was so evident from the first part of the match. The footwork was there the sharpness was there every time she stepped up to the line. And if you’re not used to that kind of rhythm and pace and power coming onto your racket, then it’s very hard to keep up.

‘And throughout the match, you kind of saw Emma step back behind the baseline. She was trying to do something different. She was kind of a meter and a half back behind the baseline at one point. But when you give Iga that time, it’s it’s very tough to continue to turn that point around.

‘So yeah, I honestly think that it’s one of those matches that you come away learning a lot from and you go, okay, this is very clear what I need to do and, and you get back on the practice court and you’re actually excited to do that because you can see the immediate changes that you can have.’

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