Pennetta: Raducanu win shows something wrong in women’s game
Flavia Pennetta, the 2015 US Open champion, has launched a surprise attack on Emma Raducanu’s againstthe-odds New York triumph, claiming it “could never have happened” in her day.
The Italian, 39, cited the 18-yearold’s sensational win as a qualifier at Flushing Meadows as evidence that “there is something wrong” at the highest level in women’s tennis.
Pennetta became the first highprofile player to question the merits of Raducanu’s success when she was asked, in an interview, whether she welcomed the variety of four different winners at the grand-slam tournaments this year. “I do not like it,” she told the Corriere della Sera website, adding that the “very strong discontinuity” of winners “is not good for tennis”.
“In my day, it could never have happened that a girl who started from qualifying, like Emma Raducanu in New York, won a grand slam,” she added. “Top athletes made too much difference. There is something wrong. Charisma is missing, so women’s tennis is more difficult to sell.”
Pennetta was seeded 26th when she won the US Open, beating fellow
Italian Roberta Vinci in the final.
Reflecting on her lengthy career in professional tennis, she indicated it was unclear whether Raducanu and Leylah Fernandez could enjoy long periods of success in the sport. “The very young Raducanu and Fernandez – it is all to be shown that they are confirmed,” she said.
Referencing Serena Williams, she said: “A slam queen cannot vanish into thin air. I have never been among the superstars, but I lasted 15 years at a high level, and Francesca Schiavone [is] the same.”
Raducanu, who was this week confirmed as the new face of fashion brand Dior, lost her opening match at Indian Wells after her victory at in New York. However, Pennetta is alone in expressing the view that her US Open win was bad for the sport.
Briton Cameron Norrie, who followed up her success by winning at Indian Wells, said this week that he had been inspired by Raducanu’s feats. “What Emma did in New York was amazing and tremendous for British tennis and is definitely going to inspire younger girls and boys to pick up rackets and play,” he said. “It just shows all those girls who are around that ranking, Harriet Dart [the world No134] and Jodie Burrage [No 222], that they could qualify and go deep. What Emma has done has been extremely impressive and she inspired me a little bit.”
Having parted with her coach after the US Open, Raducanu last week lined up a trial with Spaniard Esteban Carril before her planned return to competition at the Transylvanian Open in Romania.