Emma Raducanu's career has been one of the more interesting ones to follow over the past few years. The pure talent and skill are more than evident. Unfortunately, it has played out in such a way that the mental element of it all has gotten in Raducanu's way.
This year has seen a surge in Raducanu's career, and there's no question that she has played her best tennis in 2025 than she has in the past few years. She has her fight back, and that's a good sign for someone who stepped onto the stage not long ago with so much potential and expectations.
With the US Open just around the corner, Raducanu is expected to be right in the middle of it, along with the top-ranked players, despite her being ranked outside the WTA's top 30. That said, a coaching legend of the past believes that Raducanu's surge this season puts her in a great spot to send some potential shockwaves through Flushing Meadows.
Emma Raducanu receives strong encouragement from legendary tennis coach
Rick Macci played an instrumental role at the start of Serena and Venus Williams's careers—two careers which went on to produce a handful of Grand Slam titles, memorable moments, and even some epic clashes between the two sisters.
Macci is a Hall of Fame legend within the tennis coaching ranks, so any opinion or perspective someone like himself offers up must be heard. In this case, Macci recently talked about Raducanu's tennis journey ahead of this year's US Open—a tournament Raducanu has achieved unmitigated greatness in, but also experienced deep disappointment.
However, Raducanu carries with her a different aura this year. Yes, she's had some controversial moments here and there and suffered some disappointing losses. Still, according to Macci, there is one element that he believes has returned to Raducanu's game: her will.
Macci recently shared in an interview with Tennis365 that Raducanu had lost her will. He then went on to proclaim his belief that the 2021 US Open winner could return to the WTA top ten. Macci has admitted in the past to being open to coaching Raducanu, but nothing has come from it thus far.
Still, it's clear he follows her career closely, so perhaps he's seeing things that many on the outside do not, which drives his poised confidence in her ability to compete at the highest level, beginning in New York next week.
While Macci didn't outright call her a threat to win the event, his words hint at Radcanu entering the event in the dark horse category, a place she has not set foot in for some time. Raducanu will have to do a lot better than her recent crash out in Cincinnati this week, but the US Open is an entirely different stage, and one she looks ready to compete in with a knife, not a fork, as Macci perfectly put it.