Emma Raducanu can rejoice in year on tour but coaching remains an issue

As Emma Raducanu dusted the dirt off her clay-court shoes and discarded them until next year after her second-round loss to Aliaksandra Sasnovich on Wednesday, a notable cycle came to a close. Having made her professional debut in the week after the French Open at the small grass-court tournament in Nottingham last year, Raducanu has now completed one year at the top level of professional tennis.

It is, first of all, a moment of reflection after a manic 12 months in which her life has transformed, a mood she appeared to be in even before her exit in Paris: “We were saying with my team this morning, it’s pretty much a year anniversary since my comeback to competitive tennis,” she said on Thursday. “I was playing a British tour [a low-level national event] in Connaught. I think I have come a long way since then. I think I do really welcome going around the second time.”

Since Raducanu took her first timid steps on the WTA tour last June, when even her first round against Harriet Dart was too overwhelming for her to play her best tennis, she has navigated the madness of her breakthrough coming at Wimbledon. Then, in her first extended trip abroad, she left it having won the US Open.

With her success has come certain difficulties. She has had to adjust to the reality of being a grand slam champion: the target on her back in the locker room, the scrutiny outside of it, the reality that she no longer has nothing to lose on court and even a stalker invading her privacy. Since the US Open Raducanu has lost more than she has won, compiling a 10-13 record, and has pulled up with innumerable physical complaints.

Every struggle Raducanu has had this year should primarily be a reminder how abnormal and astonishing her US Open run