Emma Raducanu’s career has been a whirlwind of challenges: injuries, inconsistent play, and coaching instability. Yet, her ability to thrive under pressure, both on and off the court, is remarkable. As LTA’s Iain Bates observed, “One of the things I’ve been hugely impressed with is how calm she is and how she is taking it all in her stride.” Her recent win against Emma Navarro at the Miami Open exemplifies this. How does she maintain such poise?

Back in 2021, when Raducanu made the Wimbledon round-of-16 as a wildcard, before making the US Open semifinal as a qualifier, she credited her upbringing for handling the pressure so well. “I think that the calmness and the mental strength definitely comes from my upbringing. I think my parents have both instilled in me from a very young age to definitely have a positive attitude on court,” Raducanu had said. But that isn’t a single factor!

Emma Raducanu showed resilience yet again in her grueling 2-hour and 53-minute victory against Emma Navarro—dubbed the “longest match in Miami this year”—on Friday. She even received treatment for a foot injury before the deciding set, and when she faced more break points at 3-1 down, it seemed like Navarro would quickly wrap up this match. However, Raducanu clung to her serve and came up with a more aggressive approach to finish this match at 7-6(6),2-6,7-6(3).

During her post-match interview with Tennis Channel, Emma Raducanu said, “I really do relish like a really tight situation or a tight scenario. I have this inner calmness, I think that I tap into in those situations, whereas the other times in the matches, maybe I can be a bit more emotional.“

Raducanu, who now takes pride in finally managing to clinch her third Top 10 victory in her career, further claimed, “When it gets to like 5 or 6 all, I just find like a coolness within me and I don’t know I try not to think about it because thinking makes things worse.” Talking about the incredible fight in the third set, the Brit said that she had “left everything on the court.” 

Later on in an interview with Sky Sports, when she was asked where she would rank this win among all her performances this season, she said, “It’s number one – because Emma is a top-10 opponent and I haven’t beaten one this year. The match wasn’t pretty but I had to fight, scrap, and be aggressive.” She looked quite emotional after this victory, but how does she compare this win with her historic title triumph at the 2021 US Open, though?

Emma Raducanu’s 3rd Top 10 victory at the Miami vs. her 2021 US Open triumph

It has been a tough few months for Emma Raducanu. She has been on and off the court for quite a significant time. So, after clinching this victory against Navarro, she said, “It’s a really nice feeling. It has been quite emotional, and, you know, it’s taken a lot out of me. But I’m just so happy to be, like, fighting here, and all the wins here just give me extra fuel, extra energy.”

This time was more challenging for her and although it might only be an R64 win, this victory now means a lot to Emma Raducan, who currently has a win-loss record of 5-6 in this season. The situation was quite different from the one she had during the US Open in 2021. During that time, Raducanu was in red-hot form and she won a total of 10 matches.  So, when asked to draw a comparison of this win with the one she had in the 2021 US Open final, she said,

“Well, I mean, I would say not necessarily more in terms of magnitude, but I would say emotionally, just a lot more aware of all of the suffering as well, because, you know, when I won the US Open, I just won 10 matches in straight sets. It was, I mean, I didn’t have, like, the losses, the downs, the months of, like, losing streaks. I think to come out of it now, it does, yeah, I’d say it means a lot more than certain matches at the US Open, yeah.“

With this win, Raducanu is now all set to face another American star, McCartney Kessler, in the next round. This will be her first meeting with Kessler. Can the 22-year-old Brit keep her winning run intact in Miami?