Emma Raducanu’s run at the Miami Open is over after she was beaten 6-4, 6-7, 6-2 by No 4 seed Jessica Pegula in the quarterfinals.
The 22-year-old was chasing her first title since winning the 2021 US Open but was beaten by a high-class player in a high-class match.
Raducanu’s previous two rounds involved her opponents taking medical timeouts but this time it was her with the physical issues, as she suffered with dizziness and received treatment on her left leg late in the second set. From 2-0 in the tiebreak she played some of her best tennis of the match to level the scores but Pegula ran away with the deciding set.
The stakes of this quarterfinal were raised even higher earlier in the day by the stunning upset of world No 2 Iga Swiatek by wildcard Alexandra Eala.
The 19-year-old Filipino has been the star of the fortnight and is playing some extraordinary tennis – but the chance to take on the world No 140 in a 1000-series semi-final was a mouth-watering prospect for Raducanu and Pegula.
Pegula is a highly aggressive player who keeps her shoes on the baseline and goes flat and hard off both wings. It was vital therefore that Raducanu maintain an offensive style of her own to shift Pegula out of her strike zone and by and large she did that well – as she did in beating the 31-year-old in Eastbourne last year.
Emma Raducanu’s run at the Miami Open is over after she was beaten by Jessica Pegula
The 22-year-old was chasing her first title since winning the 2021 US Open but was beaten
The slice backhand from Raducanu was highly effective, as it has been all week. It is not an especially common tactic in the women’s game and that makes it all the more potent; Pegula looked uncomfortable having to scoop up the low ball and when she followed it into the net was often picked off by a Raducanu pass.
In an extended schedule caused by Tuesday’s rain, the clock ticked past midnight during the third set. Raducanu’s physical issues did not appear to be hampering her too much but even a slight drop was always going to be terminal against a player of Pegula’s class.
For Raducanu a fortnight which began in turmoil has ended, if not in triumph, at least with a credit column full of positives. She will move up to 48th in the world but the tennis she has produced in Florida was a reminder that she can climb so much higher.
The fitness is still a work in progress – as shown by the issues in this match – but the appointment of trainer Yutaka Nakamura is clearly beginning to bear fruit; this was the first time since her US Open title that Raducanu had won more than three matches at one event.
Having split with coach Vlado Platenik after just two weeks on the eve of the event Raducanu brought in Mark Petchey, with whom she has worked before, as a temporary solution.
When the camera panned to her coaching box it was noticeable how often Petchey was grinning – as if he still could not quite believe that a tournament he began as a Tennis Channel pundit ended as the coach of a quarter-finalist.
That relaxed aura he exuded has been a feature of the scratch team Raducanu has assembled this week, with Petchey and Nakamura plus her childhood mentor Jane O’Donoghue.
Raducanu has started well in most of her matches and she put that down to her team’s regular pre-match Spikeball duels. You may have seen the volleyball-style game in parks on sunny weekends: teams of two bounce a ball with their hands into the mini-trampoline.
The stakes of this quarterfinal were raised higher earlier in the day by the upset of Iga Swiatek
‘The first section of this year, I would be so locked in,’ Raducanu said this week. ‘Every warm-up would be an hour long. By the time I played the match I was quite tired. That’s something that we adjusted this week, bringing more fun elements into it, shortening certain things, and adding things that are outside the box.’
Raducanu has operated in a kind of flow state this fortnight and her loose, aggressive ballstriking has been reminiscent of her Grand Slam title run.
She must now decide whether to try to tempt Petchey away from his commentary day job to become her permanent coach. But even if that is not the way she goes, she has learned valuable lessons about how to get the best out of herself.
‘This week was a great eye opener to when I’m happy, expressive and myself,’ she said after her fourth-round win against Amanda Anisimova. ‘Just having people I’ve known for a very long time and those familiar faces, I think that is the most valuable thing for this week at least.’
