Emma Raducanu parted company with coach Francisco Roig after suggesting she was keen to revert to the tactics that helped her win the 2021 US Open, but that ambition was undermined in devastating fashion as she was hammered by Amanda Anisimova at the Indian Wells Open.
Raducanu declared her intention to play with freedom from the back of the court after Roig opted to leave her camp, as he suggested their ambitions were not aligned.
Roig was keen to add variety to Raducanu’s game, as he clearly felt she didn’t have the firepower from the back of the court to compete with opponents like Anisimova.
“Right now, it’s more about bringing my instincts back out, getting back in touch with myself,” said Raducanu before her first match at Indian Wells.
“I have had a lot of people telling me what to do, how to play, and it hasn’t necessarily fit.”
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“So I want to come back to my natural way of playing. That takes time to relearn because that’s something that has been coached out of me a little bit.
Raducanu pushed world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka in two tight match at Wimbledon and in the Cincinnati Open last year, but she was taken apart by Iga Swiatek in a one-sided match at Roland Garros and was then well beaten by Elena Rybakina in another mis-match at the US Open last August.
Despite those beatings, Raducanu clearly believed she could fight fire with fire against big hitters like Anisimova, but this 6-1, 6-1 defeat at Indian Wells undermined that target.
Raducanu was broken in her first game of the match and in a story that replicated those matches against Swiatek and Rybakina at last year’s Grand Slams, she was rushed into errors by the pace of the ball coming at her from Anisimova as she lost the first set in just 26 minutes.
The second set was not any better for Raducanu, who appeared to be overhitting as she tried to compete with an opponent who reached the Wimbledon and US Open finals in 2025.
While Raducanu won two of her meetings with Anisimova last year, the American has taken her career to the next level and this match was a chastening reminder that the British No 1 is still a long way behind the true contenders in women’s tennis.
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This match will also undermine Raducanu’s stated belief that she can beat the best players in the world in a straight gun fight of groundshots from the back of the court.
This is not the first time Raducanu has been overpowered by an opponent operating at the top of the women’s game, with this performance suggesting the beaten Brit will need to come up with a Plan B to have any chance of unsettling the game’s biggest names.
Anisimova wrapped up the match in 52 minutes and rarely looked like she would threaten an opponent who strolled into the fourth round in a match that highlighted the huge gulf in power between the two players.
Raducanu will now head to Miami for another WTA 1000 tournament later this month, where she will have plenty of ranking points to defend in that event after her run to the quarter-finals in the Sunshine State last year.
She is currently sitting at No 23 in the live WTA Rankings, but an early exit in Miami could see her slide out of the top 30.
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