Champion hails ‘inspiration’ from Henman
AS SHE got back to her feet amid wild celebrations at the US Open, British sport’s new megastar fixed her eyes on a nearly man of yesteryear.
Tim Henman, who had been commentating from the sidelines for Amazon Prime, duly pointed straight back towards Emma Raducanu like a proud father.
With just three other members of her small backroom team with her at the US Open, the 18-year-old and Henman had formed a close bond in recent weeks.
“Honestly, Tim is such a great inspiration,” she had said en route to the final. Henman, of course, never quite managed to achieve what she has already done in her second Grand Slam, but Raducanu has been hanging on his every word while in New York.
When asked what key words of encouragement he had supplied, Henman said only that he was shouting “come on, keep going, you’re playing great tennis”. “I wish it was a bit more scientific than that,” he added.
The Toronto-born teenager’s development has been so well-protected by her Romanian father and Chinese mother that Henman was among precious few in the sporting world who were alive to the fact that she would explode onto the tennis scene.
Compared with her opponent Leylah Fernandez who had hordes of relatives with her, Raducanu had none of her nearest and dearest inside the stadium. Instead, she made a long climb through the stands of the Arthur Ashe Stadium to hug three key figures – Andrew Richardson, her coach, Will Herbert, her physio, and Chris Helliar, her agent.
Previously she was coached by Sir Andy Murray’s father-in-law Nigel Sears, but she had now returned to Richardson, who is a 6ft 7in former Wimbledon fourth-rounder who places less of a gruelling emphasis on fitness.
The lack of a huge entourage with her in New York sums up a team which is happy to be different from other A-listers in the sport. Her father Ian – described by other coaches as “a bit out there” – had played a key role in ensuring her daughter’s talent had been carefully nurtured while allowing her enough breathing space to finish her A-levels from their Kent home.
One intervention her father insisted upon was to give Raducanu a different coach for each shot, just as a golfer might have a dedicated putting coach.
Former coach Matt James, who had been working with her prior to her senior debut, said: “When she’s learning a new skill, or trying something a little bit different, she has the ability to pick things up very quickly, even if it’s quite a big technical change.”
After her victory, Raducanu also expressed thanks to unsung heroes in “my team back home”.
Raducanu added that said she had been inspired by Henman, as well as Virginia Wade, the previous British woman to win the US Open – in 1968.
With Henman Hill/murray Mount now certain to be renamed by Raducanu Ridge at next year’s Wimbledon, the retired player might be willing to accept such status.