WTA icon and founder Billie Jean King believes the key to Emma Raducanu unlocking her full potential and achieving future success is "staying healthy" over a longer period of time and also being "very patient."
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Since writing tennis history and becoming the first-ever qualifier to win a Grand Slam at the 2021 US Open, the Briton - who turned 22 on Wednesday - hasn't won any titles. However, truth be told, she has battled various injuries since then and had to surgically repair both wrists and her ankle.
Since launching her post-surgery return at the start of 2024, things have been looking better for Raducanu. But still, there were some niggles throughout the year and before returning to action on Friday at the Billie Jean King Cup Finals, the former world No. 10 was out for two months due to a foot injury.
"If she can stay healthy long enough, then we'll see how good she is. But if you keep getting injured, you never get that momentum going. If you've been injured - really injured - I always want to give a player at least a year and a half to recover. It takes a lot to come back from injury and you have got to be very patient," King told BBC Sport.
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Raducanu already knows her maing goal for 2025
As mentioned above, the 2021 US Open winner avoided any really serious injuries in 2024 but there were still periods when she was out of action. So now, she is in talks to hire Maria Sharapova and Naomi Osaka's former coach Yutaka Nakamura. And when that happens, she will focus on getting stronger and hopefully play much more next year.
"I think my goal next year is to stay on court longer. This year I came to top 60 in the world, but I played I think less than 15 events. I know if I'm on court and healthy and competing, I can go even higher and further. I think that my athleticism is a strength of mine, but it's nowhere near its full potential. I'm just looking forward to exploring that further, and ready to commit to doing that," Raducanu said in Malaga.
This season, the British tennis star appeared in a total of 13 tournaments besides the BJK Cup action.
