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Emma Raducanu cheering thread

1M views 9K replies 241 participants last post by  Cyclops 
I have a theory that might explain why Emma has a surprisingly low first serve speed relative to her second serve. Namely, her own playstyle/game plan. If you start from a basis of 'this is what I would do if I were the opponent' it makes some sense.

Emma aggressively attacks second serves so she serves her second serve way faster than the average (so it's harder to attack) and dials back on her first serve so it's more consistently in (meaning less chances to attack the second serve). While that means her first serve is more vulnerable than it would otherwise be she's got confidence in her ability to control a rally to compensate.

Granted I'm a dude that doesn't play tennis to any sort of level so what makes sense in my head might make absolutely none in the real world but that was my thought when I saw those stats.
i agree. it's clear her strategy is to serve safe but effective. attacking second serves is a staple of the wta, so don't let your opponent do to you, what you want to do to them... she also serves with slice and no kick... she prioritizes placement and movement with high % and not ultimate pace with low %
 
Can we, should we, have a video thread?

I guess this has been around a while and may be upthread, but the LTA have just posted it, so I watched it (Sonay wins again).



Older than anything I've seen before. (Also, the full SF is streaming now on the USO YT channel. Am I Emmaed out yet?)
even though emma lost the point, you can see her point construction at work, even back then... i mean that FH DTL didnt win her the point back then but boy is it winning her points now...
 
can pretty much guarantee you her back would've been 100% if she was winning.
even if she somehow won this match, she looked horrible, spraying errors everywhere...she just couldn't get her timing... looking forward to her press conference...

i was one of those that wanted her to stay in europe and skip this tournament...
 
on the bright side, she looked very much like the same player that won the USO... her base level is still there, she just needs to be in match shape, gain more experience, and get a coach/team that she can draw energy from... i think it was a terrible decision to come here with no coach...
 
im so sad. i expected emma to win. im not crazy. i knew she had it in her to be competitive.... BUUUUUT..... emma isn't the same.... she's gotten more and more passive...

i feel like everything went well for the USO (obviously) but it wasn't dumb luck. then she went to IW and absolutely ball bashed a billion errors.... after this loss is when i think emma stopped being emma and she started playing way more passively so as not to "beat herself with errors".... it's like the anti iga... iga had to learn to be more aggressive and it has transformed her game.... yet with emma i think her aggressive game was fine and just needed fine tuning but after all these months of losses and passive play, im frustrated and angry.... she isn't the same player...

she SHOULD have won today. i know im being hard on her but she NEVER stepped in and went for it, she didn't play free and she was too conservative. she hardly was the first to redirect and when she did she'd win the point, only for her to hit short rally balls right afterwards... like wth???? USO emma was a beast, always first to redirect with confidence...

i want emma back... rant over...
 
Emma played very far from her best today, obviously.
I’m very sad for the missed BPs at 1-1 in the third which could have been the turnaround, but sometimes it happens. Sad because I feel if she had taken that break, she could have turned the match around. She was deflated after those missed opportunities. Sad because it was tight margin, if she had taken that break, the third set could have been different.
Alas, it happens. All learning experience.
she never once stepped in and went for a winner when she had break points, and she had a lot of them. she kept 10 feet behind he baseline and just got it over the net. even if she was tired or slightly injured, you have to go for it to end the points quickly.
 
i think emma just got bad advice. like clay court is so different you have to play differently blah blah blah... but we've all seen ball bashers still ball bash on clay and have relative success.... emma was not aggressive enough full stop. she won the 1st set because she started hitting harder at the end of it, more depth, less time for sas to respond. then in the 2nd and 3rd, back to moon balls... her FH and BH were in the 60's mph... utterly pathetic pusher style is what did her in... every time she was first to change direction, good things happened, but she never stepped up to the baseline enough and was constantly defending...
 
Emma used to have a playing style that prevented her opponents getting into a rhythm. I distinctly remember various commentators saying at USO how her shots always came back with some interest, how she was constantly moving her opponents around on each shot, so that it was always a bit awkward for them, how she played very smart. I don’t know where that went. She seems to hit a lot of shots now right back to the middle of the court, so her opponent can just stay there. I really want to hear her explain technically what’s going on. I feel like if we can see what’s going wrong, then professionals like herself and her team should be able to spot these problems and fix them?
spot on. right now she's just getting to ball over the net. she's not moving the ball around, not hitting deep. i mean she even moonballed a bunch during the clay court season... she's not making tons of errors though... so she's basically a pusher that isn't consistent like a real pusher which only leads to one conclusion: multiple 1st and 2nd rd losses.... where oh where did our sweet emma go? sophomore slump? but she's completely different now....
 
The commentator on the match i watched said hitting down the middle was deliberate to cut down angles. You have to hit deep though, hitting short opens up the angles again.

I re-watched the first set, i think other than the tie break which got away from her, Emma played very well, and i think maybe even better than against Samsonova first set They were hitting the ball very hard, much harder for example than the Daria/Bibi match which i had on at the same time on another screen. And they were hitting it flatter than the Daria/Bibi match. I think Emma's doing fine, her FH abd BH and serve seemed fine to me, Camila was just lights out today, and got better as the match went on.
when every random scrubs plays lights out against you, the problem is.... you...

im not calling giorgi a scrub, but emma has lost to a bunch of them since the USO so... yeah... it's not "fine"... clearly she needs a revamp to get BACK to where she was, be it mentally or technically...
 
It will come in time, she's just trying to get some matches so she can improve. Have you re-watched the first set?
we can only hope... clearly all the excuses are thrown out... no clay, no injury that we know of, etc... on her best surface she still stands 3m behind the baseline to return... for her sake, she better have a good reason... otherwise she's throwing her prime years away by changing what got her a GS to begin with....
 
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