Do you think this could be useful?

Yes. Thanks for properly defining the purpose.

 

Anyone know why the previous version of this thread was deleted? There was so much complaining about it (on top of the other recent arguments) that I had to take a bit of a break from TF.

 

Anyone know why the previous version of this thread was deleted? There was so much complaining about it (on top of the other recent arguments) that I had to take a bit of a break from TF.

When did this happen? I don’t remember it (I suppose it’s before I joined)

 

Agreed, there should be a specific thread where the technical side of Emma’s game is discussed. Good job creating it here 👍🏻

 

@cricketbat - you can talk about Emma’s FH all day long in here. Bookmark it

 

I think it's probably best for everyone if I let others do most of the discussion in this thread, I would probably only make fanciful contributions such as "I wonder what would happen if Emma hit her forehand using her backhand?" 😂

 

And I am going to be trying so hard to not contribute with replies to your “I wonder what would happen if Emma hit her forehand using her backhand?"

Anyway, a question for those who are more knowledgeable about tennis: considering Emma’s tennis technique, would it be easy for her to learn a one-handed backhand and develop that into a weapon? I am a fan of Henin and I would love to see Emma have a one handed backhand like Henin.

 

Yes, the better the technique, the less likely the shot is to break down under extreme pressure. For any shot really, but serve in particular. Emma has an almost flawless technique which is a really good asset for her future

 

IIRC, Mark Petchey said in the round 1 amazon prime commentary that she changed from a semi-western grip to a eastern grip

 

She should rebrand the eastern grip to the Tiffany & Co. Grip. Makes it fancier and more Emma.

 

I think she has the best serve technique out of any top player under the age of 21. I think Chris Evert alluded to her having a better technique than Gauff during the USO.

She doesn't have the raw power of Coco, but it's less likely to break down under pressure because of her motion, like Gauff's does occasionally on her 2nd serve.

 

I think she has the best serve technique out of any top player under the age of 21. I think Chris Evert alluded to her having a better technique than Gauff during the USO.

I also remember, Evert mentioned that Emma’s serve has a tell. Do you agree? If you do, can you point it out to me?

I tried and to the best of my ability, I guessed that it was where Emma positions herself when she serve. I actually watched it very closely and sometimes I am right and other times not so that must not be it.

One comment I saw in youtube mentioned about the tell is how she curves her body when she serves. Depending on her arch of the back, you can tell where she will place the ball? But as I am not that technical, I cannot really tell.

She doesn't have the raw power of Coco, but it's less likely to break down under pressure because of her motion, like Gauff's does occasionally on her 2nd serve.

With regards to power, do you think that in time she can develop hers to be as powerful or more as Gauff’s?

 

No idea where to post this since there seems to be quite a lot of different threads now for discussing specific things haha but it's tennis related so why not here:

Is it just me or does Emma look like she has way more muscle in her arms back in 2020 than now?

I know she's younger here so it could just be she wasn't as lean as she is now, but her arms definitely look bigger and stronger. Same with this match against Badosa (6:55) and in both matches her shots do look like there's more power

I know she was with Sears for a while, who has a reputation for having players suddenly losing weight when they're with him, I wonder if there's a correlation. In any case I suppose it's redundant since improving fitness is clearly a priority for her given her social media posts. But improving upper body strength is something that defo needs to happen especially for slow surfaces where there will be less pop in her shots and she'll have to rely on strength more.

 

I know she's younger here so it could just be she wasn't as lean as she is now

I think it's just this

In any case I suppose it's redundant since improving fitness is clearly a priority for her given her social media posts.

Agreed with this. It's clear that she wants to increase fitness and her strenght / muscle mass...I think she has very good trainers and coaches now so we shouldn't worry imho. She's going to be fine.

 

IMo Emma likes to serve wide too much when on the deuce side. Recently I feel her opponents have started expecting it. Her down the T serve I don't think she has a lot of confidence about as it's too erratic at the moment. The serve that won her the USO title looked like a flat bomb out wide in the ad court; a very low percentage serve but she hasn't used it as often since then. I think she will improve drastically as a server as she gets stronger and hopefully guided by the right coaches. There is no reason why she can't be consistently over 110mph with her first serves. At a listed 5'9" she is not a small girl by WTA standards.

Looking forward to watch her this week. I'll be paying attention to her forehand, as lately she has a tendency to float it too much and let the opponents tee off on it. So I'm looking for more authority on the forehand during rallies, and more finishing power as well. The backhand has been rock solid even recently. She is quite a capable volleyer but in my opinion her approach shots are too often aimed cross court, opening up too many angles for the opposition. She needs to hit more down the line or even down the middle of the court when approaching.

 

IMo Emma likes to serve wide too much when on the deuce side. Recently I feel her opponents have started expecting it. Her down the T serve I don't think she has a lot of confidence about as it's too erratic at the moment. The serve that won her the USO title looked like a flat bomb out wide in the ad court; a very low percentage serve but she hasn't used it as often since then. I think she will improve drastically as a server as she gets stronger and hopefully guided by the right coaches. There is no reason why she can't be consistently over 110mph with her first serves. At a listed 5'9" she is not a small girl by WTA standards.

Looking forward to watch her this week. I'll be paying attention to her forehand, as lately she has a tendency to float it too much and let the opponents tee off on it. So I'm looking for more authority on the forehand during rallies, and more finishing power as well. The backhand has been rock solid even recently. She is quite a capable volleyer but in my opinion her approach shots are too often aimed cross court, opening up too many angles for the opposition. She needs to hit more down the line or even down the middle of the court when approaching.

yeah..I agree. I would like to use her T-serve more often when she is serving from Deuce court. That wide-serve from Deuce court isn't effective on all the surfaces, especially with Emma's current speed.

 

Good no nonsense technique. Emma's motion is not as quick as some of the best servers like Serena/Pliskova/Barty.

 

Fascinating series of insights from Emma's Under-11 coach discussing Emma. Don't dismiss it because it's U-11. He lives and breathes tennis, and you get a lot of insights into Emma and her mother and father, and their approach to life and tennis.

Part 6 - Emma Raducanu's 10 & Under coach gives a final powerful message

 

Interview with Marta Kostyuk after defeating Emma in Cluj.

Key quote:
"...by the fifth game maybe, I figured out how to play her - today. Maybe next time I play it's going to be different tactics...It was quick, but I couldn't read her - if her ball is in, it's really tough to do something. I was trying to put as many balls back as I could, and that's it."

Kostyuk routs Raducanu in all-teenage Cluj-Napoca QF; Kontaveit, Halep, Peterson also progress

Quarterfinal day at the Transylvania Open saw Marta Kostyuk win a Generation 2002 battle over Emma Raducanu; the top two seeds, Simona Halep and Anett Kontaveit, enjoy quick victories; and Rebecca Peterson triumph in three sets over Lesia Tsurenko.

www.wtatennis.com

 

Unlike the Sasnovich loss (where Emma was outplayed), I wouldn't read much into that Kostyuk loss..that loss didn't have much to do with Kostyuk figuring out Emma or whatever that means. Emma played like a different player right from start that day..she was just ball bashing right from start and that's not her game and it was obvious that something was off. She later mentioned in the post match press conference that she woke up not feeling herself and was feeling bit under the weather but just wanted to give it a shot and finish off the points quickly.

 

It's a continuation of an earlier discussion, where we were talking about being able to read Emma's serve. Kostyuk says she couldn't read her.

 

I have a question but Idk where in the threads to ask this question so I think here is fine?
For anyone that cares to answer is Emma the first famous sports player y’all follow from the start of her career or after she won? Or y’all had experience with others?

 

Yes, Emma's the first sport personality that I follow at the start of her career. I started following her after she won against Voegle in US Open R1. So it was definitely a roller-coaster ride ever since.

 

Emma seems to have nervous starts to the match quite often...in her Wimbledon first round match vs Diatchenko, she had like 5-6 DFs in first couple of service games but settled down after that. Even in USO, in 4th Round, QF & SF, she did either go down a break or faced BPs on opening service games...she settled down after opening 2-3 games. She did have 3 DFs in opening couple of games yesterday too which were costly. She might say to the press that she doesn't feel much pressure but she definitely does, atleast some pressure.

 

I agree. I think she needs to approach each point like a top NFL quarterback when they take a snap. Forget whatever happened on the last play when there whether it be an interception, fumble, sack, etc. The ones the dwell on it and don't forget it end up causing more errors. Not sure how Emma can get to that point, but from my viewpoint it looks like she is not forgetting the last points quick enough.

 

One thing that Emma executed amazingly well at US Open was her wide serve (Deuce Court) and DTL FH combo..she was just nailing it. But she hasn't been able to replicate that combo effectively since then. She hasn't been able to get that timing right on that Forehand.

Here are couple of the examples from USO

 

Yes the serve wasn’t the problem in the Seville match it was the forehand

 

btw, the loss against Gavrilova was the first match that Emma has lost after winning the first set

 

I wonder how easily she could apply game theory to her tennis tactics. If her opponents read her or use a certain tactic, surely there's a way that can be used against them.

 

Hello Geolutin welcome to Emma’s Empire I hope you have fun here. 🙂

 

Sorry really naive question, but is it humanly possible to swing volley every stroke after the serve? Kinda like in badminton. Meaning you never let the ball bounce in your court besides receiving a serve.

 

.

 

I was thinking of trying to hit baseline strokes from the service line before they bounce with a full swing

 

In 2021, Emma won 66% of points on her first serve. Average for WTA Top50 players was 65.7% and Emma ranked 22nd out of top50 players in this aspect which is decent.

So far in 2022, Emma is winning only 58% of points on her first serve. That puts her at 5th worst among current top50 players. For comparison, Emma won 70% of her First Serve points at USO.

She served Aces on around 4% of her serves in 2021 whereas so far this year, that % has dropped to just 2%.
She double faulted on 4.8% of her serves in 2021, whereas so far this year, that % has jumped to nearly 8%.

Obviously she hasn't had smoothest start to the year but lot of her issues this year are down to her serve, in particular first serve. Her return game and ground game has been ok (looked excellent in some patches)...but badly needs to sort out the first serve. I hope someone asks her about her serving issues in the press conference.

 

In 2021, Emma won 66% of points on her first serve. Average for WTA Top50 players was 65.7% and Emma ranked 22nd out of top50 players in this aspect which is decent.

So far in 2022, Emma is winning only 58% of points on her first serve. That puts her at 5th worst among current top50 players. For comparison, Emma won 70% of her First Serve points at USO.

She served Aces on around 4% of her serves in 2021 whereas so far this year, that % has dropped to just 2%.
She double faulted on 4.8% of her serves in 2021, whereas so far this year, that % has jumped to nearly 8%.

Obviously she hasn't had smoothest start to the year but lot of her issues this year are down to her serve, in particular first serve. Her return game and ground game has been ok (looked excellent in some patches)...but badly needs to sort out the first serve. I hope someone asks her about her serving issues in the press conference.

The interview probably hadn't been released when you posted this but it turns out Emma had a stiff back that meant she struggled to serve at normal speed.

In terms of comparison to 2021 you also have to look at the surfaces - it is easier to hit aces on fast surfaces than slow ones and the courts she has played on so far in 2022 are slower than those she played on in 2021 so I am not surprised nor concerned that she has hit fewer aces this year.

While there is always room for improvement I think her first serve is great - very high percentage in play normally, decent speed and good placement. I do think she hits too many double faults though so could do with some more development of her second serve.

 

Some troll is lost in EE, started a thread

Please don’t feed it

 

Even after that loss, I think Emma's game is looking quite good apart from the inconsistency and serve problems. She made quite a few shots that were just top class and dug winners out of places where you wouldn't expect them. She was tired and seemed to be feeling her back, so those are the most likely reasons why her serve was so bad today. The serve is commonly one of the first things to be affected by a bad back.

I'm of the opinion that of the WTA next gen (Emma, Iga, Leylah, Gauff, Tauson, etc), one or more of them will go on to break some serious records and possibly even surpass Serena. They already have such strong games at a such a young age that it would be hard to not expect them to do big things in the future. It reminds me of when Nadal/Murray/Djokovic's gen with the likes of Monfils, Delpo, Tsonga, Berdych came into men's tennis and started sweeping away Federer's generation who were still only in their mid-late 20s.

Emma can definitely be the one to break the records or at least somewhere close. Big expectations but I don't doubt her talent at all after the games I have seen recently, I just hope that at the very least she fulfils most of her potential and can be satisfied with her career at the end of it.

 

I'm of the opinion that of the WTA next gen (Emma, Iga, Leylah, Gauff, Tauson, etc), one or more of them will go on to break some serious records and possibly even surpass Serena. They already have such strong games at a such a young age that it would be hard to not expect them to do big things in the future.

I don't see that...atleast as of now. For the starters, none of them have a strong and reliable serve like Serena does.