Parents are key as their drive takes her to top
BARELY more than a year ago, Emma Raducanu could be found practising her serves with her dad Ian in the sleepy cul-de-sac outside their family home.
The lockdown scene couldn’t have appeared more normal... bar some pretty obvious skill.
If the ball disappeared into their hydrangeas patient neighbours didn’t bat an eye, without a clue the tall teen with the beaming, marketable smile was heading for fame and fortune.
This summer as a Wimbledon wild card, and her current fairytale in New York were just future dreams.
All her devoted dad cared about was honing her skills in the street.
“It was virtually every day when it was dry and the sun was out,” said neighbour Dave Moore. “She’s very motivated and her father really pushes her.”
This goes a long way to explain Emma’s very normal, modest, but intensely driven, background.
Born in 2002 in Toronto, Canada, to Romanian dad Ian and Chinese mum Renee, the family moved to London when Emma was two.
Her parents both work in finance and Emma has recalled that at home there was always a focus on academic achievement – borne out in her recent economics A-level results.
But also on extra-curricular hobbies. Emma, an only child, said: “My parents definitely have high expectations. In anything, not even just tennis. I have to be the best, do the best I can.
“They both came from academic families and in tough countries growing up.
“They were both communist countries, so education was kind of their only option. They want me to have options...”
They also knew that confidence was key and pushed her to try different hobbies.
Young Emma rode tiny motocross bikes, tried ballet and tap, skiing and golf, and at the age of five began attending Bromley Tennis Academy.
She is close to her grandparents, talking fondly of regular visits to see her dad’s mother Mamiya in central Bucharest where she loved her grandma’s “special” cooking.
Which is a relief to hear from the disciplined athlete who reportedly only allows herself peanut butter and a single square of dark chocolate for treats.
Perhaps after the final, she’ll run to a whole bar.