Emma Raducanu admits sometimes she wishes she hadn’t won the US Open in 2021
‘Sometimes I think to myself, ‘I wish I had never won the US Open”: Emma Raducanu admits her shocking grand slam success at 18 weighs heavily on her as she opens up about ‘sharks’ and her looks like a ‘piggy bank’ ‘
- Emma Raducanu says she sometimes wishes she hadn’t won the US Open in 2021
- Since he achieved fame as an 18-year-old, Raducanu has been battling injuries
- Raducanu added that many ‘sharks’ in tennis see her as a ‘piggy bank’
Emma Raducanu has spoken about her brutal time on the tennis tour and admits she sometimes wishes she never won the 2021 US Open after being used as a “piggy bank” by industry “sharks”.
Raducanu, now 20, will miss Wimbledon and the US Open after wrist and ankle surgery and has fallen to 128th in the world rankings.
“When I won I was extremely naive,” Raducanu told the Sunday Times. ‘What I’ve realized in the past two years, the tour and everything that comes with it, it’s not a nice, familiar and safe space.
“You have to be on your guard, because there are a lot of sharks there. I think people in the industry, especially with me because I was 19, now 20, they see me as a piggy bank.
“It was difficult to navigate. I got burned a few times.
Emma Raducanu has revealed that she sometimes wishes she hadn’t won the US Open in 2021
Raducanu suffers from injuries and often changed coaches
“I’ve learned, keep your circle as small as possible.”
Raducanu’s struggles since making New York history are well documented, from her constant changing of coaches to her many commercial commitments and her setbacks from injury. And she laid bare the pressure this ultra-competitive sport comes with, adding, “I don’t think it’s mentally bad to take a break, reset, and get really hungry for it again.”
At the 2021 US Open, which she won by beating Canada’s Leylah Fernandez 6-4, 6-3, Raducanu said, “Since then I’ve had a lot of setbacks, one after another. I am resilient, my tolerance is high, but it is not easy. And sometimes I think to myself, I wish I had never won the US Open, I wish I hadn’t.
“Then I think, remember that feeling, remember that promise, because it was completely pure.”
Raducanu recently split with her coach Sebastian Sachs.
Raducanu, who is ranked No. 128 in the world, recently parted ways with coach Sebastian Sachs