EM DID IT FOR DAD
He wanted to play tennis but had no time under
dictatorship
EMMA Raducanu is fulfilling her dad’s own thwarted tennis dream, her gran has revealed.
The 18-year-old British sensation’s victory in America last week is a world away from her father’s humble beginnings in a grim tower block above a row of shops in
Romania’s capital.
It stands in a run-down district of Bucharest named
Sector Two where the average monthly wage is £667.
It took Emma less than three seconds to earn that in her £1.8 million US Open triumph in New York.
And Emma’s gran Nina,
88, who still lives in a onebedroom flat on the fourth floor where the monthly rent is £238, explained why
Emma’s success will mean so much to dad Ian.
Speaking in the shadow of the block which Emma visits twice a year, Nina told us: “As a boy, he would play tennis whenever he could.
“But there wasn’t much time for him to practise as he was too busy with school and the Communist regime did not give you too much time to pursue your hobbies.”
Ian’s progress was slowed by growing up under murderous dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, who was executed on Christmas Day 1989 after his overthrow 12 years before Emma was born.
Ian’s childhood in the Romanian capital, which was ravaged by severe rationing and some of the lowest living standards in Europe, was a world away from the life he has since created for 18-year-old Emma in Bromley, south east London.
Nina, a retired primary school teacher, said: “I’m really proud of Emma, but also I’m really proud of my son and his wife for pulling a champion out of her.
“This is the result of all her hard work, along with her parents, who invested a lot of time in her with rigorous training.”
Nina still refers to her only child as Catalin – his birth Christian name.
He decided to use his middle name Ion – later Ian – after
being teased by pals who joked Catalin sounded like a girl’s name.
He graduated from Bucharest’s faculty of civil engineering and later moved with Chinese-born wife Renee to Toronto in Canada, where Emma was born in 2002.
But Nina said: “Canada was so far from home, so he moved to the UK as it is in Europe and he wanted to be closer to home.”
The proud gran was unable to watch live coverage of Emma’s win because it did not start until after 11pm local time and she was too tired.
Incredible
But she did see a replay next day. Nina is now planning to celebrate Emma’s incredible victory with her in person next month when she hopes the star will visit her before playing in Romania’s Transylvania Open.
And she is already excitedly planning to prepare the teenager’s favourite meal – the country’s national dish sarmale which is a mix of meat, veg and rice wrapped in cabbage.
Nina said: “I taught her how to cook sarmale and it is her favourite.”