At the end of a tense, high-quality opening set on Sunday in Rome, Emma Raducanu had plenty of reason to despair. Despite how she had elevated her level to wrestle control of the contest, offering herself an opportunity to serve for the set, it ended in misery. She returned to her seat one set away from defeat.
Instead of allowing frustration to consume her, Raducanu maintained her composure and plotted her path to victory with an impressive exhibition of her problem-solving abilities. She recovered to defeat Veronika Kudermetova 5-7, 6-0, 6-1 and reach the fourth round of the Italian Open.
Jack Draper, the British No 1 and men’s fifth seed, also continued his spectacular breakthrough run on red clay as he reached the last 16 with a tense 6-4, 6-3 win against the Czech qualifier Vit Kopriva.
As Raducanu continues to gain greater experience on clay, this week marks the first time in her career that she has won three consecutive matches on the surface. She will next face Coco Gauff, the fourth seed, in a highly anticipated encounter on Monday. Draper, meanwhile, will meet Corentin Moutet in the fourth round on Tuesday after the Frenchman pulled off a spectacular 7-5, 5-7, 7-6 (4) win against Holger Rune, the ninth seed.
After losing an intense opening set against an excellent Kudermetova, a former No 9 player now ranked No 50, Raducanu recovered by mixing up the spin and height of her shots while choosing her moments to force herself inside the baseline and attack.
As Raducanu’s confidence grew, the final two sets were emphatic. This performance was further evidence that she is beginning to understand her strengths and find an identity on court after years of deliberating over how best to approach her game.
“When I was younger, when I was under nine, I was literally just hacking,” said Raducanu, laughing, on the evolution of her playing style.
“And then I got to a stage where, through the under 12s and 14s, the LTA coaches are like: ‘You need to play more aggressive.’ We had a certain quota of things to do: we had to hit one drive volley in the first game, had to hit one winner in the first game. And it was quite fun, I guess, but I had to basically adopt a more aggressive mindset.
“Now I’m exploring my creativity a bit more on the court. I think I got very boxed in to a certain way of playing, which was aggressive. I dominate, I’m an aggressive baseliner, but I think I have more tools at my disposal. So in practice these days, I’ve just been messing around with the ball and seeing what I can do, and how creative I can be.”
Despite a more straightforward scoreline, Draper had to work through a difficult day on court. As he struggled with his intensity, the 23-year-old struck 24 unforced errors on his forehand and even obliterated his racket after frustrations boiled over in the second set. In the end, Draper’s serve, weight of shot and defensive skills meant he had far too much game for the relatively underpowered Kopriva, a 27-year-old who broke into the top 100 for the first time last month.
“I obviously don’t condone smashing rackets, but if you’re going to do it, one might as well do it properly,” Draper said, laughing. “But no, I’m usually trying to stay pretty calm. I’m quite a fiery, feisty competitor. Sometimes that can boil over. Sometimes I feel I need to let out some frustration. Today I felt like I was not myself. I wasn’t there every point. So, yeah, that’s normal.”
With no time to rest between his Madrid Open run and Rome, Draper has spent the past three weeks switched on and always preparing for the next match. He explained the challenge of maintaining that intensity every day. “I try and just keep going,” he said. “I didn’t sleep that great last night and then obviously you wake up and you feel like, ‘ah’. But I think it’s just having good people around me – trying to, on the days I have off or before matches, have a little nap and just sleep well. And it’s hard.
“It just kind of feels like a bit Groundhog Day sometimes, so that can catch up with you on the court. But there’s no reason why, in the round of 16, I won’t be feeling better again.”
