ITF W25 Minsk - Raducanu's time to shine

Tennis Never Sleeps

The good thing for tennis fans (and players) is that there are tournaments on all year long. Even when the main tours go on a break this time of year, there will still be some ITF events played. When you take a closer look, you will find some interesting talents from all around the world in these smaller tournaments. The following preview features two of them, Lara Salden from Belgium and young Brit Emma Raducanu.

Britain's Biggest Prospect

Lara Salden is 20 years of age and really climbed up the rankings in 2019. Starting the year outside of the top 700, she improved week after week. Currently, she finds herself at a career high #286. The Belgian can win tennis matches on all surfaces and her game can be described as an all-court game as well. She doesn't possess any major weapons, but is playing solid from the baseline.

Her opponent today is a player I'm following pretty closely. Emma Raducanu was born in Toronto, Canada. Her parents (from Romania and China) moved to Great Britain when Emma was two years old. Starting to play tennis at the age of five, Raducanu quickly developed into one of Britain's biggest prospects. In 2015, she became the youngest ever winner of an ITF U18 event. You have to be at least 13 years old to enter these events and she literally signed in for the tournament on her thirteenth birthday. So after winning that Nike Junior tournament in Liverpool, she also became the Aegon Junior Player of the Month in November 2015. All that after just turning 13.

In juniors, she achieved a career high ranking #20 on a 65-18 record. Her first steps on the pro tour have been promising as well and she immediately won two 15k events in 2018. This year, she reached the semifinal stage at two 25k events while beating players like Paar, Anderson or Badosa.

Surface Advantage for Award Recipient

Raducanu's game is based on a big serve and aggressive play from the baseline. She always tries to dictate points and go for winners with her flat but not erratic hitting. This should be the key factor in today's matchup with Salden. The Belgian clears the net a lot higher which will give Raducanu opportunities to attack.

I assume the young Brit will also be inspired by receiving the first Amazon Prime Video Future Talent Award a few days ago, which offers her financial support over the next two years as well as advice from Andy Murray who will serve as a part-time mentor for her and Jack Draper, the winner of the men's award.

So with that in mind, I think Raducanu will play with even more confidence on the surface that fits her best. The match will be on Raducanu's racquet and I don't see her as the underdog at all in this matchup. She only turned 17 yesterday and who knows, maybe she will go on a similar run to the one four years ago.