Emma Raducanu has enjoyed, objectively, the best year of her young career in 2025.
After all, she has finally found consistency in her form and fitness, allowing her to play and perform steadily, and thus increase her ranking exponentially.
Now, she is guaranteed entry into any event she wants, and is on the cusp of a seeded spot for Grand Slam tournaments too.
It has been a year of great progression, and will likely be far more important in the long run compared to the remarkable, impossible high she enjoyed at the US Open in 2021.
However, as her recent defeat to Elena Rybakina proved, Emma Raducanu is still so far from where she wants to be. Martina Navratilova, therefore, has a question for the British number one about where her future is headed.
Martina Navratilova tells Emma Raducanu what she needs to do going forward
Having first spoken about Raducanu’s coach, with Navratilova sharing her opinion on Francisco Roig, she then turned her attention to the player.
And, whilst her schedule has been filled to the brim all year, in a smart change from her previous plan, the pundit and 18-time Grand Slam singles champion has insisted that this cannot be a flash in the pan.
Speaking to Sky Sports, the 68-year-old actually insisted that it is the only way Raducanu will continue to progress, posing a question to her that can only be answered through action.
She claimed: “There’s no substitute for match play no matter how much you practise, how much you train.
“It all comes down to proofs in the eating of the pudding. It all comes down to ‘can you do it during matches?’, and then once you get those matches under your belt then you can build up to it and say ‘okay, this part of what the coach is telling me is working really well or this part is not great or I’m not ready for it or this is not the right fit for me’.
“It’s up to the player to see what works for them and make that decision, but matches tell you everything.”
“Tennis is a funny sport and then you need to be fast and then slow in the match in the point right when you play the point – that’s great – and then you need to kind of shut it down and then restart again and then the fine line between being really concentrated and still being relaxed; so it’s such a balancing act in so many different ways which I think is why it’s such a fascinating sport because you’re the only one that can fix it.”
Emma Raducanu’s Grand Slam performances in 2025
Although she did not come close to reaching the heights she did when she won the US Open in 2021, this year was a far more consistent offering.
However, that has certainly helped in her steady climb up the world rankings, resulting in her current live ranking of 34th.
Her year started at the Australian Open, where she impressed in the early rounds before being beaten by Iga Swiatek in the third round.
She did leave Melbourne with key victories over Ekaterina Alexandrova and Amanda Anisimova, though.
Next came the French Open, where Raducanu was once again beaten by Swiatek in the second round, before Wimbledon again saw her claim a great win over Marketa Vondrousova, followed by a loss to a top-ranked player in Aryna Sabalenka.
The US Open was no different, with Rybakina her conqueror on this occasion.
There may not have been a headline-stealing run in there, but it shows that if Raducanu can up her game to start competing against the very best the WTA has to offer, she is ready to frequently go deep at majors.
