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Raducanu’s Miami turning point and Petchey’s verdict ahead of Rybakina test

Raducanu’s Miami revival set up a confident US Open run as she prepares to face Rybakina. This week.

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Emma Raducanu arrives at the US Open third round with renewed momentum, producing perhaps her best tennis since the 2021 title run. A 60-minute victory over Janice Tjen was her quickest-ever win at a Grand Slam and marked her 26th win of 2025, the most she has recorded in a single season. Firmly back inside the top 40 and having dropped just six games across her US Open campaign so far, she looks more dangerous than at any point since 2021.

That form was not guaranteed six months ago. Raducanu reached the third round of the Australian Open in January but was beaten heavily by Iga Swiatek in the round of 32. Heading into the Miami Open she carried an underwhelming 3-6 record for the season and had to contend with being confronted by a stalker at the Dubai Tennis Championships.

Miami proved decisive. After a disappointing loss in Indian Wells the previous week, Raducanu reached her first WTA 1000 quarter-final in Miami and collected a top-10 win over Emma Navarro along the way. Following a period of coaching uncertainty she returned to former coach Mark Petchey at the tournament, and their success there led to them continuing to work together through the summer. Strong showings at the Italian Open and Wimbledon were cited as highlights as the partnership helped set the path for her recent resurgence.

“Coaching Emma was awesome. Everybody knows it was a very roundabout way that we got involved with each other in Miami.

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“She was obviously in a slightly difficult spot, and I was there commentating, so I ended up being able to help her out.

“That was kind of going to be it. Then obviously she had a great week, and I was able to figure out a way to try and do both for the past three or four months.

“From my perspective, I hope people can really understand how much she loves tennis.

“She’s totally invested in it. She watches it all the time. She practices as hard as anyone I know and has spent more time on the court, or as much time on the court, as everybody else. And obviously she’s living a very different life.”

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Raducanu enters Friday’s match as the underdog against ninth seed Elena Rybakina. Rybakina reached the semi-final of all three of her hard-court warm-up events this summer and dropped just one game when she beat Raducanu at the 2022 Sydney International. That solitary meeting was over three-and-a-half years ago, a period during which Raducanu has improved dramatically and now competes under new coach Francisco Roig.

“She’s living a lot of her career in reverse, and that’s not been easy,” added Petchey.

“Having set the bar so high so early on in your career, every week you are measured not just by other people’s expectations but also your own expectations. That is a good thing because it drives you to be as good as you can be.

“But on the other hand, it’s difficult, because at times it can feel like you’re not hitting the standard you want to because that’s where your bar is at.

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“From that perspective, her work ethic and her desire to be able to do what she did back in 2021 is as great as I remember it in 2020 when I first had a chance to work with her.”

Raducanu’s New York pedigree is a factor: despite opening-round exits in 2022 and 2024, she won 10 straight matches during her 2021 run. Rybakina has never advanced beyond the third round at the tournament, and her 2025 showing matches her best New York result to date. The winner of this match will face either Marketa Vondrousova or seventh seed Jasmine Paolini.

Analytics & Stats Player News WTA

Anisimova Enters WTA Top 3 and Becomes the New American No. 1

Amanda Anisimova rises to No. 3 in the WTA rankings and becomes the top American player. ©Prange2025

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Amanda Anisimova rises to a career-high No. 3 in the latest WTA rankings, marking her first appearance inside the Top 3 and establishing her as the top-ranked American player. She moves up from No. 4 while Coco Gauff drops from No. 3 to No. 4, a swap driven by this week’s points adjustments.

There were no tournaments last week, but points from Week 1 of 2025 have dropped off the rankings. Anisimova remains on 6,287 ranking points. Gauff’s total falls from 6,763 to 6,273 after last year’s United Cup results are removed. The net effect places Anisimova ahead of Gauff and makes her the highest-ranked American on either the ATP or WTA lists; Gauff is now the second-highest-ranked American.

Anisimova’s climb carries additional historical notes. She becomes just the third player born in the 2000s to reach the Top 3 in WTA history, and the fifth player born in that decade to achieve a Top 3 ranking across either the WTA or ATP. She is also the 15th American woman to reach the Top 3 since WTA rankings began in 1975. For context, 11 American men have reached the Top 3 since ATP rankings were introduced in 1973.

Other notable ranking changes this week include Linda Noskova moving from No. 13 to a personal best of No. 12. Clara Tauson slips from No. 12 to No. 14; Noskova lost her second match in Brisbane a year ago while Tauson won the Auckland title at the same time last season. Cristina Bucsa makes her Top 50 debut, rising from No. 51 to No. 50. Anastasia Potapova drops from No. 50 to No. 55; Bucsa lost in the first round in Brisbane last year while Potapova reached the third round.

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© 2025 Robert Prange

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Analytics & Stats Player News WTA

Hsieh Su-wei at 40: Four decades distilled into 40 defining numbers

Hsieh Su-wei turns 40: 40 milestones from No. 1 doubles weeks to Grand Slam and tour titles. Today!

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Hsieh Su-wei celebrates her 40th birthday with a resume few peers can match. A concise selection of career milestones captures the arc of a player who has excelled in doubles, enjoyed late-career singles highlights and returned to the tour with sustained success.

She first reached No. 1 in doubles on May 12, 2014, becoming the first Taiwanese player to reach the top spot in tennis in either women’s or men’s, singles or doubles. She claimed two Grand Slam mixed doubles titles at the Australian Open and Wimbledon in 2024 alongside Jan Zielinski; those were their first and third tournaments together. Her three WTA singles titles came in 2012 (Kuala Lumpur and Guangzhou) and 2018 (Hiroshima).

Hsieh has won Grand Slam women’s doubles titles with four different partners: two with Peng Shuai, and one each with Barbora Strycova, Elise Mertens and Wang Xinyu. She has five Wimbledon titles, including four in women’s doubles (2013 with Peng, 2019 with Strycova, 2021 with Mertens and 2023 with Strycova) and one mixed in 2024 with Zielinski.

Her WTA Finals record features six appearances and a title in 2013 with Peng; she reached the semifinals in 2025 with Jelena Ostapenko. Across Grand Slams she owns seven women’s doubles majors, plus two mixed doubles majors. Indian Wells stands out among her 13 WTA 1000 doubles titles, winning it four times in 2014 (with Peng), 2018 (with Strycova), 2021 and 2014 (with Mertens).

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Other highlights: she has 36 doubles wins in 2025 (36-18), 37 career tour-level doubles titles (35 women’s, two mixed), and 40 career tour-level titles overall (three singles, 35 women’s doubles and two mixed). She spent 59 weeks at No. 1 in doubles and is one of only 18 women to log 50 or more weeks at the top. Her Top 10 and Top 15 singles victories mostly arrived in her 30s, including her first Top 10 singles win at Roland Garros in 2017 and a landmark win over reigning No. 1 Simona Halep at Wimbledon in 2018.

Early markers include a perfect 30-0 start below tour level at 15 in 2001 and her first Grand Slam doubles title at Wimbledon in 2013. She retired from singles in 2024 after Miami. Hsieh is the top seed in doubles in Brisbane this week alongside Jelena Ostapenko.

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Alcaraz Tops 2025 ATP Earnings List and Clears $60 Million in Career Prize Money

Alcaraz tops 2025 ATP prize money with over $21 million and passes $60 million career total. Update

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The ATP’s final prize money standings for 2025 confirm a season dominated by Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner. Alcaraz led the tour with more than $21 million in prize money for the year, while Sinner followed with north of $19 million. World No. 3 Alexander Zverev ranked third on the list with $7.5 million.

Alcaraz’s 2025 total is the second-highest single-season haul in ATP history, behind only Novak Djokovic’s 2015 figure. Sinner’s earnings for 2025 also produced a milestone: he became the first player to exceed $19 million in a season and the first to top $16 million in two different seasons.

Beyond the single-season figures, Alcaraz’s 2025 earnings pushed his career prize money past $60 million. That achievement marks him as the first player, male or female, born since 2000 to reach that level. The draft also notes that he is the first player born since 1988 to pass the $60 million mark.

The final prize money leaderboard underlines the financial gap at the very top of men’s tennis in 2025, with the two leading players combining for the bulk of top-year payouts. The published top-10 list for 2025 places Alcaraz and Sinner well clear of the next tier, with Zverev as the highest earner after them.

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These numbers frame a season in which prize money concentrated at the top for a small group of players. Alcaraz’s performance in 2025 not only reinforced his place as the year’s top earner but also cemented a rapid climb in career earnings, while Sinner’s consistency produced an unprecedented dual-season benchmark in annual pay.

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