Is Emma Raducanu bringing her old US Open magic back to Wimbledon?

Emma Raducanu has won one tournament in her career. It happened at the 2021 US Open, when she started in qualifying and blitzed her way through 10 straight matches without dropping a set.

It was a stunning run at the time, but it has only become harder to believe in the three years since.

During those years, the Londoner hasn’t won a tournament at any level, and before this week she hadn’t made it past the second round at another major. She’s ranked 135th. The only time we heard about her, it seemed, was when she was splitting with another coach. Or watching one leave. In 2022, Dmitry Tursunov said he decided not to take a job with her because there were “some red flags” that “just couldn’t be ignored.”

But this summer, as clay turned to grass and the tours returned to England, Raducanu began to crop up on TV screens. She made the semifinals in Nottingham and the quarterfinals in Eastbourne, where she recorded her first Top 5 win, over Jessica Pegula. She has had success on home soil in the past, when she made the fourth round at Wimbledon in her glory year of 2021. Could the support help her return to that kind of form again?

Raducanu, who is somehow still just 21, gave us our answer on Friday, when she steamrolled the No. 9 seed, Maria Sakkari, 6-2, 6-3, before a packed and raucous—or at least Wimbledon-raucous—Centre Court.

From start to finish, Raducanu did everything that coaches want their players to do. She played with purpose during points, and walked with it, too, between them. There wasn’t a wasted motion in her game, or a distracted or negative moment in her demeanor. Every shot was aimed squarely at winning, and every lost point was followed quickly by a better and more decisive one.

On her serve, she won points with the wide slice into the deuce court over and over. In the ad court, she used her hard, flat, first delivery to bail herself out of trouble. She made 76 percent of her first serves and saved all seven break points she faced.

On her return, Raducanu stepped inside the baseline and aggressively fired her two-handed backhand down the line—even when Sakkari hit a 107-m.p.h. second serve.

On her ground strokes, Raducanu gave herself big, safe targets crosscourt, but sent the ball there with shape and force. She only needed to hit 15 winners on the day, five fewer than Sakkari. It wasn’t all meat and potatoes, though; Raducanu also won points with drop shots and topspin lobs.

And everything she did was backed up by the crowd.

“I think today was really the most fun I’ve had on a tennis court,” Raducanu told the audience afterward. “I enjoyed every single moment. I was telling myself, ‘How many times re you going to get the opportunity to play in front of a full Centre Court?’”

Asked what she was happy with in her performance, she said, “I think I’m most proud of how focused, how determined I was in every single moment.”

What has been different for her this summer, compared to the last couple of years? Raducanu mentioned two things, one to do with match-play, the other to do with practice.

“One of my big strengths is the big points,” she said. “I step up and I thrive and I love the challenge and trying to overcome it…I think in the last couple years, I don’t think I was playing those big points in the same way. Like, I wasn’t as aggressive. I was more passive.”

“Playing such a top opponent like Maria…You just have to take the opportunities while you have them.”

As for her attitude in practice, she said this:

“[It’s about] having you inner passion every day,” she said. “In practice I’m just trying to win the day.”

This may not be the last day that Raducanu will win at Wimbledon. Her next opponent is 123rd-ranked Lulu Sun. If she beats her, she would get a chance to face either Paula Badosa or Donna Vekic for a spot in the semifinals.

Can Grand Slam lightning strike twice for Raducanu? Asked a question along those lines in her press conference, she again sounded the proper note, one that any coach would be proud to hear:

“I think staying present in the moment is what got me this far,” she said. “I’m not going to start changing anything.”