Emma Raducanu just can't get going. © GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / JULIAN FINNEY

“Sometimes I wish I had never won the US Open”

Emma Raducanu won the US Open as a qualifier and became an overnight star. She remembers the overwhelming feeling of triumph, but she has experienced a lot of negative things since then.

June 19, 2023

From: dpa/det

For tennis player Emma Raducanu, her only triumph so far at a Grand Slam tournament also had many negative sides. “I am resilient, my tolerance is high, but it is not easy. Sometimes I think to myself: I wish I had never won the US Open. “I wish that hadn’t happened,” said the 20-year-old in an interview with the English newspaper Sunday Times.

Raducanu became the first qualifier to win the US Open title in 2021 at the age of 18; it was the first Grand Slam title for a British woman in 44 years. Since then, she has struggled with injuries and is currently recovering from surgery on both wrists and an ankle.

From 10nd place to 130th place

“When I won the title, I was extremely naive,” said Raducanu, who fell from 130th to XNUMXth in the world rankings in just one year. Over the past two years she has realized that the tennis tour and everything that goes with it “is not a very nice, trusting and safe space. You have to be careful because there are a lot of sharks out there,” she said. Many in the industry viewed her as a “piggy bank” due to her young age: “I have learned to keep my circle as small as possible. The tour is completely brutal.”

Her greatest triumph: Raducanu won the US Open in 2021. © ANSA / JUSTIN LANE

After the French Open, she also missed Wimbledon in the summer; last year her pain increased after the grass classic. Nevertheless, she continued to train so as not to be seen as weak in front of her new coach at the time, Dmitri Tursunow. In addition to the physical pain, she also suffered psychologically; she built a facade to hide her problems.

Five coaches in two years

“I always want to show or strive for the best version of myself, but I knew I couldn't do that,” said Raducanu, who parted ways this June with her German coach Sebastian Sachs, her fifth coach in less than two years .

Struggles with her form: Emma Raducanu. © GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / JULIAN FINNEY

But your US Open victory is also motivation. “Then I think to myself: Remember this feeling, remember this promise, because it was completely pure,” said Raducanu, who thought on September 11, 2021 at the moment of her greatest success to date: “I would really solve every problem for that take the world upon myself. That’s what I promised myself on the pitch that day.”