A wacky volleyball variant played with a mini-trampoline has come to Emma Raducanu’s rescue this week, as she rediscovered her best form amid the tower blocks and luxury yachts of Miami.
Raducanu ascribed her renaissance to a relaxed state of mind – and that, in turn, to the games of spikeball that she has been playing with her team in the minutes before matches.
“I’m someone who works really hard and can be really intense, but sometimes too intense,” said Raducanu on Monday, after easing 17th Amanda Anisimova out of her path by a one-sided 6-1, 6-3 scoreline.
“So I think just being able to switch off and have fun with them [her team] by playing spikeball before the match, they bring small doses of happiness that just keep you going.”
Also known as roundnet, spikeball was invented in 1989 and involves two teams of two. Players can palm the ball to each other before spiking it on to the trampoline. Think of it as beach volleyball without the bikinis or the high net.
With a three-person support staff in Miami that comprises childhood mentor Jane O’Donoghue, fitness trainer Yutaka Nakamura and locum coach Mark Petchey, Raducanu has assembled the ideal number of people for the game.
Credit: Youtube/@emmaradufanu
Admittedly, spikeball might seem like a whimsical explanation for Raducanu’s form bump, which has brought her four successive victories on the WTA Tour for the first time since she won the US Open.
But she has repeatedly ascribed her improved performances to her buoyant mood in Miami, to the people she has been working with, and to the fun they have been having in the immediate lead-up to her matches.
Even Blair Henley, the experienced on-court interviewer, told Raducanu after her dominant third-round performance against McCartney Kessler that “I see a lot of walk-outs onto the court in a day and often they’re very serious … You were very smiley and you waved to the crowd.”
Something is clearly working, because Raducanu has made a strong start to all four matches to date, breaking serve at the first opportunity in three of them.
During the press conference that followed Raducanu’s fourth-round win over Amanda Asinimova, she cited the changes to her pre-match routine as a key factor in her recent success.
“The first section of this year, I would be so locked in,” Raducanu said. “Every warm-up would be an hour long. By the time I played the match, I was quite tired. That’s something that we adjusted this week, bringing more fun elements into it, shortening certain things, and adding things that are outside the box.
“For example, not just running up and down in a straight line, which can be a bit more tedious. Playing a game, getting a good sweat on, laughing. Then you go onto the court feeling a lot more relaxed, and every part of you is just looser. Yeah, I think it’s worked so far this week.”
Given the amount of stress that Raducanu has been under lately, especially around the horrendous stalking campaign that came to a head in Dubai, it has made a pleasant change to hear her sounding so sunny.
If we take a closer look at the ups and downs of the past month, we can see that Raducanu is always looking to balance the hard grind of the training court with the need for headspace and relaxation.
On Monday, she acknowledged that the nine days of training she did with Vladimir Platenik, the Slovakian coach she hired on a trial basis at the start of March, had delivered “some really good work”, adding that “I’m getting some benefits on the match court right now.”
But while Platenik is widely acclaimed as a development coach, having transformed his compatriot Dominika Cibulkova from a second-tier player to a grand-slam finalist, Raducanu still ended the collaboration after 14 days. In her comments since then, she has praised his contribution while subtly implying that she felt slightly overwhelmed by it.
Unlike so many players who delegate all the big decisions to their coach, Raducanu prefers a more collegiate relationship. She considers herself to have a deep understanding of the game, and looks for someone she can debate with as an equal.
In general, those people have tended to be old allies. Such as O’Donoghue, the former Lawn Tennis Association coach who trained her as a schoolgirl. Such as Petchey, who spent the summer of 2020 ironing out some of her technical flaws. Or such as Nick Cavaday, the trusted coach who ran Bromley Tennis Academy in the early 2010s but was forced to pause his work with her in late January because of chronic health issues.
Platenik might also have spent a week working with Raducanu in 2020, but she clearly doesn’t remember it too well because she said on Monday that “I just met him, and it’s difficult to build many years of connection straight away.”
The issue for Raducanu going forward is that Petchey is unlikely to be available on a regular basis, because of his many commitments as a leading commentator. Even in Miami, he was absent for the third-round match against McCartney Kessler because he was working for the Tennis Channel.
But such questions can wait a little longer. Raducanu has a day off on Tuesday when she will be able to continue her preparations for Wednesday’s quarter-final against Jessica Pegula, the fourth seed.
Raducanu has already climbed to a projected ranking of No 48 and another win against Pegula would bump her up a further 11 places, thus overtaking Katie Boulter (No 38) to reclaim her former position as the British No 1.
The quarter-final represents another significant test for Raducanu, even if she defeated Pegula in their most recent meeting last summer. But one thing is certain: the trusty spikeball trampoline will resurface in the minutes before the match. Long may it propel her to success.
