Why Emma Raducanu regrets winning 2021 US Open

• British tennis star Emma Raducanu has opened up about her difficult time on the tennis circuit
• She says that ever since she took this victory, people always treat her like a piggy bank
• The 20-year-old is currently out of the WTA Tour as she recovers from an ankle and two wrist surgeries

British tennis star Emma Raducanu has opened up about her difficult time on the WTA Tour stating that she sometimes regrets winning the 2021 US Open.

She says that ever since she took this victory, people always treat her like a piggy bank and with sharks unrelentingly ready to pounce on her.

The 20-year-old is currently out of the WTA Tour as she recovers from an ankle and two wrist surgeries she underwent in May.

She will miss the two remaining Grand Slam tournaments including her beloved Wimbledon and the US Open.

Raducanu hasn’t won any other tournament since 2021, one of her biggest challenges being injury and tennis coaching dynamics.

She now says that winning the US Open opened a new dimension in her life which she doesn’t love one bit.

“When I won I was extremely naïve. 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,” she told the Sunday Times.

The one-time Grand Slam champion says she is better aware that tennis has its sharks whose fascination is young tennis player who are 20 years old. Their existence, she adds, has made it difficult to navigate the sport and she ends up burned in some instances.

Her two years of navigating this scene has taught her the value of having just a few friends. The smaller the circle, the better for her.

Emma Raducanu. Photo/AutoEvolution

WHAT HAS EMMA RADUCANU STRUGGLED WITH?

Injury and lack of a firm stand on who should coach her compound Raducanu’s struggles since her 2021 US Open victory.  She went separate ways with her former coach Andrew Richardson who coached her until she won her first grand slam at 18.

It now appears that the decision to end her relationship with Richardson was the first in a string of errors and mishaps that led her to this situation. Both Richardson and Raducanu couldn’t predict the outcome of their separation, but she feels the heat of her decision with every match.

Raducanu insisted she wanted someone with more tour-related experience while defending her decision to cut ties with Richardson. Yet, the tennis coach left the scene like he was never there and continued with his low-key life.

Richardson and Raducanu have no bad blood as many people would assume. They ended the contract on mutual understanding. The coach says that he had a nine-week contract with the 20-year-old British tennis player and it ended as soon as the 2021 US Open was over.

“The fact of the matter is that I had a nine-week trial contract that both Emma and I thought was a good idea to see how we would get on, and it ran through to the end of the US Open, stopping immediately afterwards,’ he explains according to Daily Mail Sport.

In July 2022, she stirred a sharp debate over her bid to hire Russian coach Dmitry Tursunov. Her decision had a huge political impact in the UK especially because it was only a few months after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Emma Raducanu. Photo/ Tennis365.

EMMA RADUCANU STRUGGLE WITH SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE PRESS

Given the weight of her decisions and performance, she always courts negative publicity which she is aware of. The fact that she hasn’t won any other tournament since her maiden US Open 2021 win, always gives her critics a field day on social media and in the press.

Weeks to the US Open in 2022, Raducanu said that she had to alter her social media behaviour to protect herself from being “attacked” and criticized. The world No. 138 was responding to the criticism.

She cut her time on social media to keep her mind straight. The British tennis star is also less vocal than she was back in the day. However, she maintains that tapering and the circumstances are key since she enjoys communicating and sharing with her online followers.

But occasionally she is too engaged with training and exhausting days to even check her phone. This enables her to comprehend that there are situations in which she must prioritise her demands over those of her job.