Raducanu: I’m ready to deal with being a superstar
Britain’s US Open hero ‘very grateful’ Queen took notice of her tennis and will frame her message
EMMA RADUCANU beamed with joy yesterday as she promised she was “ready to deal with” her new life as a global sporting superstar.
Raducanu said she had been humbled to receive a message of congratulations from the Queen, which she will now frame, adding that she was “very, very grateful that she took notice of my tennis”.
Her Majesty will honour her with at least an MBE, although insiders said her achievement could lead to the very rare award of an OBE to a teenager.
In one of the great sporting stories of all time, Raducanu was crowned US Open champion on Saturday night just months after completing her A-levels.
She won $2.5million in prize money and is now expected to become the wealthiest female British athlete of all time.
At the age of 18, she was prohibited by New York drinking laws from celebrating her victory with champagne and said yesterday that she preferred to do so by eating chocolate frozen yogurt and a chocolate brownie.
“It’s chocolate, some more chocolate and some chocolate brownies. I am one of those,” she said.
Asked if she understood how her life would be transformed following an outbreak of Emma-mania in the UK and around the world, she said: “I have got no idea what’s going on. None at all. Not a clue. But anything that comes my way I am ready to deal with it.”
One gambling website was giving odds of just 1/12 on her being crowned BBC Sports Personality of the Year, putting her far ahead of such Olympic champions as Adam Peaty and Tom Daley and the England football team that reached the final of Euro 2020.
In an interview with the British media, Raducanu said she was astonished to have been sent a message from the Queen in which the monarch had said she had “no doubt” that she will “inspire the next generation of tennis players”.
Raducanu said yesterday: “I’m incredibly honoured, just blown away. I never in my life thought Her Majesty would watch one of my matches.
“It’s so special, I can’t believe that it’s happening. I’m so grateful to have received that message.”
She said she had never thought about the prize money on offer while playing in the final and insisted that her decision to retire from Wimbledon in the
‘I’m incredibly honoured, just blown away. I never thought Her Majesty would watch one of my matches’
fourth round with breathing difficulties was “not a mental issue”.
She said it had become a running joke that she would treat herself to Airpods, small headphones for listening to music, if she won the tournament, having lost them three minutes prior to her first qualifying match.
“I had no idea of the prize money,” said Raducanu, adding: “I have been telling myself before each match, ‘If you win, you can buy yourself another pair of Airpods.’ That has been the running joke.”
She also spoke of her sadness that her parents Ian and Renee had been unable to travel to New York to witness the match because of Covid restrictions on entering the US but said that she had spoken to her father who had told her: “You’re even better than your dad thought’.”
The champion will remain in New York for the next few days, embarking on a sightseeing tour of the city and also a round of television network interviews that will cement her place as the rising star of tennis.
The LTA, the sport’s governing body in the UK, is planning a celebration on her return that will involve an event to boost grassroots tennis in the country.
The Duchess of Cambridge, patron of the LTA, will be expected to attend.
In a message following Raducanu’s victory, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge said: “Incredible – we are all so proud of you.” Downing Street is understood to have made an approach to the LTA to also host a victory reception. Boris Johnson praised Raducanu’s “extraordinary poise and guts”, while Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer added: “What a winner. A true British hero.”
Emma Raducanu’s remarkable victory in the US tennis championships has shattered all sorts of records. Just 18, she was the first qualifier to win a major title and did so without losing a set. At a time when British tennis seemed to look in vain for a competitor, male or female, capable of emulating Sir Andy Murray’s stellar achievements, Ms Raducanu apparently sprang out of nowhere, first at Wimbledon where she reached the quarter finals, and now in New York. But while the scale of her early success has astonished even her support team, the UK tennis world had known for years what an exciting prospect she was, even if the rest of us did not until relatively recently. Are there more waiting in the wings?