Emma Raducanu teaches tennis lesson from 4,000 miles away
Emma Raducanu stunned the tennis world when she won the 2021 US Open. The British star beat Canadian Leylah Fernandez 6-4, 6-3 to secure her first Grand Slam title and the first for a British woman in 44 years.
Just 18 at the time, she became the first to win a major after coming through the qualifiers and without dropping a set. But despite Raducanu’s remarkable achievement, the experience was tinged with regret.
United States’ strict coronavirus rules at the time prevented her father Ion Raducanu and mother Renee Zhai from travelling to the States for the final, meaning she could’t share her triumph. “I speak to my parents, we don’t really talk so much about tennis but they just really want to know how I am in these moments,” the former British No. 1 said in her post-Grand Slam winning press conference.
“To not have them here with me, I would have loved them to be here and we can all celebrate together or they could be with me and experience the same things but you know, they’re watching from home very proud. My dad said to me ‘You’re even better than your dad thought’ so that was reassuring. My dad’s definitely very tough to please but I managed to today.”
Raducanu’s parents have been influential in their daughter’s remarkable journey to tennis superstardom. Romanian Ian and Renee, who is Chinese, were living in Toronto, Canada, where their only child Raducanu was born before the family moved to the UK when she was two.
Her parents work in finance and live in Bromley, south-east London, where Raducanu would hit tennis balls with her father in the street during the coronavirus lockdown. The 20-year-old shares a special connection with her parents and believes their firm method of parenting enabled her to become the person she is today.
She previously said: “They have been pushy to an extent. Not just in tennis but in everything. I think that I’ve developed that mentality since a young age.”
Emma’s parents are not watching her compete at the ongoing 2023 US Open as their daughter recovers from surgery on both hands and her ankle.
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A miserable run of injuries has seen Raducanu fall to No. 185 in the world rankings after previously being as high as No. 10. In July she posted a series of videos on Instagram as she prepares to return to action. “First few steps but nice to be reintroduced,” she wrote.
“I tried my best to manage the pain and play through it for most of this year and end of last year by reducing practice load dramatically, missing weeks of training as well as cutting last season short to try to heal it,” she said in a statement after her operations.
“Unfortunately it is not enough. I’m having a minor procedure done on both hands to resolve the issues. I am disappointed to share I will be out for the next few months and while I am at it I will have another minor procedure that is due on my ankle. It pains me that I will miss the summer events and I tried to downplay the issues so I thank all my fans who continued to support me when you did not know the facts. Looking forward to seeing you all back out there.”
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