Back for Good?

Emma Raducanu returned to playing tennis yesterday winning her first round match in New Zealand after eight months away from the sport.

Like many, I remember her as an 18 year old in 2021. The wildcard debut at Wimbledon when she was ranked way outside the top 300, her play impressed us all in the early rounds on court, she had a great game for the grass. During that first week, she was on the TV a lot, grabbing the media attention and using it to gain followers on her socials. It almost seemed like she was as excited about that as she was the match results. She retired from her fourth round match. I agreed with McEnroe at the time, she had built it up and perhaps herself so that the occasion ended up too much for her to handle.

As soon as she was out of the tournament, it seemed to be all about followers, TV appearances, magazine shoots, Porsche cars and such like.

After the Wimbledon achievement, she chose to get rid of the coach, which seemed a strange move to many.

A few weeks later, she won all her qualifying matches in North America and gained a wildcard entry to the US Open…where she won it! Not only that she is the only ever qualifier to come through and win, furthermore she never even dropped a set. The journos all said she was fortunate to get an ‘easy’ draw. True but that was not her fault. Emma beat every opponent she faced in the tournament, which is all she could do.

Then after that amazing run and brilliant win, she got rid of that coach too. Bizarre to me.

Since then the coaches have come and gone and results have dropped off. Her world ranking climbed as high as number 10 but currently ranked 301.

On the subject of coaches, she says she has a curious personality who likes to bombard questions at the coaches, rather than just do what they suggest.

My main issue is she says it with a tone suggesting she is somehow cleverer or more advanced than players before her were. Serena Williams, Chris Evert had coaches who put them through their paces, the coaches know what they are doing and the players put their trust in their area of expertise.

In spite of poor results and a hiatus from tennis already she has continued amassing high value endorsements from brands likes British Airways, Vodafone, Evian, Dior, Porsche, Tiffany’s & Nike. As well as appearing on covers of Tattler and Vogue.

She has the talent but is she willing to put in the work to be a full time tennis player on tour or is she content being just another photogenic celebrity?

Emma can dine out on being a grand slam winner for the rest of her life from a few good weeks she had aged 18 but I hope she improves her attitude, sticks with a coach and commits to tennis.