Steve Johnson is still struggling to understand what has happened so far in Emma Raducanu’s career.
Raducanu reached the final of the Transylvania Open, but was unable to clinch the title, losing in straight sets to Sorana Cirstea.
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Even with this defeat, she still saw her WTA ranking improve. After his defeat in Cluj-Napoca, Johnson commented on a statistic about Raducanu which he called “crazy”.
Steve Johnson explains why he’s baffled by Emma Raducanu’s career path
Photo by James D. Morgan/Getty Images
Raducanu, who won the US Open in 2021, had not made another final before his recent appearance at the Transylvania Open.
Speaking about this on the Nothing Major podcast, Sam Querrey said he was caught off guard by this fact, while John Isner and Johnson also spoke about his unusual career path.
“I found that a little surprising,” Querrey said. “This is only the second final of Raducanu’s career.”
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Isner replied: “There aren’t many competitions for Raducanu’s career so far. Just a US Open grand final out of nowhere via qualifying, winning it and not making a final again for four years.”
Johnson continued: “The 2021 US Open and those are her only two finals on Tour, which is crazy. It’s crazy. She’s kind of had her career in reverse. She came on the scene, first won the biggest tournament of her career and now has had growing pains afterwards.
“It’s good to be in the final but it’s crazy that she hasn’t been to another final since the 2021 US Open.”
Cirstea was a deserving winner as she produced one of her best matches in some time against Raducanu.
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It happened again last week against Cirstea as she was once again blown away by a player ranked in the WTA top 30.
What’s next on Emma Raducanu’s agenda?
Although she didn’t feel better during the Transylvania Open, Raducanu made the trip to Doha for the Qatar Open.
Playing just two days after her final in Cluj-Napoca, she was still visibly ill and ended up abandoning her match against Camila Osorio.
Raducanu is yet to win a match at the Qatar Open, but there are plenty of opportunities ahead for her to turn things around.
Next up is Dubai, where she will compete in another WTA 1000 event as part of a busy stretch that also includes Indian Wells and Miami next month.
The Dubai Tennis Championships begin on Sunday February 15. This is one of four consecutive WTA 1000 tournaments on Raducanu’s calendar.
