My parents will look after £1.8m US Open prize, says Raducanu
Emma Raducanu yesterday revealed that she would let her parents decide how to spend the £1.8million prize money she won at the US Open – admitting she had not even checked whether it had arrived in her bank account.
On her first full day back on home soil since her “fairy tale of New York”, the British tennis phenomenon told breakfast television she was “not the most organised”, something she would get “pulled up on” by her mother and father.
“I’m honestly like any other teenager,” said the 18-year-old, who was still coming to terms with her history-making exploits after becoming the first qualifier to win a grand slam and Britain’s first female major winner for 44 years.
The $2.5million first prize also made her one of the country’s youngest self-made millionaires but, asked in a question-and-answer session with schoolchildren how she planned to spend her winnings, she told the BBC’S Breakfast from her Bromley home: “I will just leave that to my parents and my team, to be honest. I’m just focusing on what I love to do, which is competing. They can take care of that.”
Raducanu, whose mother and father both work in finance, told Good Morning Britain she had not checked her bank account since her stunning victory on Saturday and had not bought anything with her newfound riches.
Raducanu joked immediately after her win that her first purchase would be headphones to replace a set she had lost in America, but she said yesterday that she expected much of her prize money would go on funding her career – and tax.
“Tennis is an extremely expensive sport,” said Raducanu, who got an A* in maths and an A in economics in her A-levels this summer and visited the New York Stock Exchange. “From when I’ve travelled at a young age, there are a lot of expenses. So, it’ll probably go towards that. I don’t really think of the money side of it. I just love competing. I know that there are a lot of taxes and expenses.”
Raducanu was reunited with her
parents on Thursday morning – they did not travel to New York partly due to visa issues.
“They just gave me a hug when I came back,” she said. “Nothing crazy, no big celebration. My mum made some really good homemade dumplings. They’re just staying discreet and just some reassurance and saying they’re proud of me.” Raducanu said she then spent most of Thursday in bed.
The low-key reaction to success was equally matched in Bucharest by Raducanu’s paternal grandmother Niculina. Having asked son Ian and his wife Renee following Raducanu’s Wimbledon collapse whether her granddaughter “should quit tennis”, she did not watch last week’s US Open triumph because “her heart couldn’t take it”.
“I’ve never told anyone I’m the grandmother of a grand-slam champion,” she told the Daily Mail.
Raducanu’s reunion with her parents was in stark contrast to her celebrations in New York, with the teenager saying the Sweet Caroline singalong that began at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in Flushing Meadows continued when she was returning to her hotel. “There was sort of a party bus going on in a sprinter van with a lot of music, good tunes, and we were all just singing along,” she said. “Then we had a really nice night just talking until early on in the morning, just reflecting on the whole experience.”
She added of a whirlwind week that included attending the prestigious Met Gala: “I managed to go to some really cool events and places. At the Met Gala, I spoke to Lewis Hamilton, which was really, really cool, being such a fan of motorsport and Formula One.”
The Met Gala is chaired by Anna Wintour, Vogue editor-in-chief, who, witnesses reported, was on Raducanu’s flight home and who could look to make her a cover girl.
“I actually didn’t really know Anna Wintour was on my flight,” said Raducanu, who nevertheless said she would “of course” accept such an offer from the magazine.
She also spoke about wanting to use her triumph to inspire more children to play tennis, something she had already discussed with Boris Johnson. “He congratulated me,” she said of her phone call with the Prime Minister on Tuesday. “We also spoke about inspiring more kids in grass-roots tennis and getting more children involved. I hope it shows you can live a normal life and do great things.”
Revealing she spent her first night back home rewatching her US Open final win, she said what she had achieved was still sinking in.
“It’s still such a whirlwind of an experience – I’ve loved every moment of it. But it’s very difficult to fully comprehend.” As for when she would next play, she said: “I’ve had a very, very long and intense seven weeks. So, I think I just really need some time to rest.”