EMMA: WHAT A TOUGH TEST
This time last year, I was doing my A levels... it’s been a hard road since, but I wouldn’t have changed it for world
EMMA RADUCANU has reflected on her crazy year since finishing her A levels, and said: “I would have taken everything that’s happened since.”
And the US Open champion admitted she is learning to take “more pleasure in the journey” of her young career.
Raducanu has gone from unknown schoolgirl to an instant tennis superstar as the first qualifier to win a Grand Slam title.
And despite splitting with her latest coach Torben Beltz last week, she has reached the second round of the Madrid Masters where she faces Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk today.
Raducanu is getting technical help from LTA’s head of women’s tennis Iain Bates, as well as doubles specialist coach Louis Cayer who is also in Madrid, although Cayer’s priority will remain with the British doubles players.
She was relaxed and chatty as she spoke to reporters after beating Tereza Martincova for her fourth win in three different countries in her first clay campaign.
And with a beaming smile, the world No.11 volunteered: “It’s funny. I was on my phone today, and it sent me the memories of one year ago today.
“I took my last maths exam, and then I was just reflecting on that and I was like, ‘Oh my god, like 365 days ago, I was literally sat in an exam hall’.”
The Bromley teenager added: “I would have taken everything that’s happened and dealt with any sort of downs or losses or whatever those feelings are, if you would have given me what I’ve had in the last year.
“So it definitely gave me a lot of satisfaction and being very proud of myself.
“I was really looking forward to carrying on.”
Raducanu, now 19, got an A* in maths – she also got an A in economics – but her results on the tennis court were not immediately as successful.
She added: “That afternoon after my morning exam, I went to go hit some balls because I had to get ready very quickly for the grass season.
“I didn’t play tennis for like two months. I actually played a Brit Tour at Connaught the week after my exams and lost and I was really considering what was going on.
“The week after I managed to win one very ugly, and it kept
me going and I had a great grass season.”
Raducanu’s rapid success has been accompanied with massive interest in her life with a long list of sponsors but she has had a run of early defeats, injuries and a stalker.
“Life in a way was simpler back then because it’s 100 per cent just you and your tennis,” she admitted.
“And I think that it definitely took me a while to adjust to everything that’s been going on.
“But I feel like if you would have told me any of the results I’ve had this year, for example, just winning a round in Australia.
“If I hadn’t have won the US Open, I feel like that would have been a good result for someone who is 19.
“But in the more recent weeks, I have definitely just taken more pleasure in the journey of it and even when I’m losing, I find it like a great challenge to pick myself back up.”