Raducanu’s Recipe for Success: Supreme Serve and Baseline Dominance

Emma Raducanu has found her recipe for success at this year’s US Open, and it’s a potent combination of a supreme serve and utter dominance from the baseline. She employed this formula to perfection in a 6-2, 6-1 demolition of Janice Tjen, cooking up a performance that sends her into the third round with significant momentum.
The foundational ingredient was her serve. In the first set, she landed 76% of her first serves and won 84% of those points, a statistic that underlines her control of the match. This serving excellence gave her the freedom to be aggressive in every other aspect of her game, allowing her to dictate play from the center of the court.
From there, Raducanu added the second key ingredient: baseline dominance. She camped inside the court, taking big cuts at the ball and striking it early to rush Tjen. The Indonesian qualifier, who possesses a crafty game, was never allowed to settle or implement her strategy. Raducanu’s relentless pressure, especially on Tjen’s backhand slice, was the defining feature of the match.
This was a tricky encounter against a player who had been on an incredible winning streak. Yet, Raducanu’s clear and effective game plan turned it into a one-sided affair. This recipe for success has worked flawlessly through two rounds, but the next challenge, likely against a top-10 opponent, will require her to execute it with even greater precision.