Emma Raducanu has laid bare her “brutal” experiences on the tennis tour since winning the US Open and said: “There are a lot of sharks out there.”
In her first real acknowledgement of her struggles over the 21 months since she lit up New York, Raducanu admitted there are times when she wishes she had never won that title.
“When I won I was extremely naïve,” Raducanu told The Sunday Times. “What I have realised in the past two years, the tour and everything that comes with it, it’s not a very nice, trusting and safe space. You have to be on guard because there are a lot of sharks out there. I think people in the industry, especially with me because I was 19, now 20, they see me as a piggy bank. It has been difficult to navigate. I have been burnt a few times. I have learnt, keep your circle as small as possible.”
Speaking during a fashion shoot, Raducanu said that her current absence from the tour — which could last the rest of the season, as she recovers from wrist and ankle operations — will give her a chance to reconsider her goals and expectations.
“I don’t think it is bad mentally to take a break, reset — and get really hungry for it again,” she said. She also explained that her memories of September 11, 2021, still inspire her to remember the upsides of this sport.
“That moment on the court, when I was celebrating, I was like, I would literally trade any struggle in the world for this moment,” she said.
“Anything can come my way, I will take it for what I have right now. I promised myself that, on the court that day. Since then I’ve had a lot of setbacks, one after the other. I am resilient, my tolerance is high, but it’s not easy. And sometimes I think to myself I wish I’d never won the US Open, I wish that didn’t happen. Then I am like, remember that feeling, remember that promise, because it was completely pure.”
Since that night, Raducanu’s travails have been well-documented by every British news outlet: the five departed coaches, the high-profile commercial commitments, the physical ailments.
Public scrutiny
She explained how difficult she has found it to deal with the public scrutiny, especially when her body has denied her the chance to perform at her optimum level. Since the 2021 US Open, she has retired from five matches because of injury. And even when she was able to continue, she was in chronic wrists pain.
“The pain (in the wrists) escalated last summer after Wimbledon,” she said. “I started with a new coach and I was really motivated to get going. We were overtraining and I carried on even through pain because I didn’t want to be perceived as weak.
“I was struggling with the physical pain but the mental side of it was really difficult for me too. I always want to put forward the best version of myself, or strive for that, but I knew I couldn’t.
“I very much attach my self-worth to my achievements. If I lost a match I would be really down. I feel things so passionately and intensely. I was under so much pressure to perform, people had no idea what was going on. And then to be scrutinised. It is a lot harder when you are making mistakes in front of everyone. The tour is completely brutal.”
The Daily Telegraph in London
