It has been a magical run from the world No 338
(Picture: PA Wire)You’d be forgiven for not knowing who Emma Raducanu was before this year’s Wimbledon, but in the space of a week the British 18-year-old has been catapulted to almost national heroine status. “It’s coming home, Emma,” a fan on court one shouted as she hit the winning forehand to beat Romanian Sorana Cirstea — once ranked No 21 in the world — in straight sets on Saturday.
It has been a magical run from the world No 338, who was given a wild card to even be at the championships, and had played her first WTA Tour match only last month. Fresh from her A-levels, in which she is expected to get top marks, Raducanu has been seeing off players with more years on the tennis court than she’s been alive, as she becomes the youngest British woman to reach the last 16 since 1968.
Devastatingly, she was forced to retire last night in her fourth-round match after suffering breathing problems but this is certainly not the last we will see of the young star, who could be a breath of fresh air for the sport.
Even though she is making her name in history already, Raducanu comes across as relatable and down-to-earth. Her Instagram could be that of any 18-year-old girl, apart from the fact that her mirror selfies and holiday pics are interspersed with the occasional snap with Roger Federer or highlights from Wimbledon’s court one. You know, just typical teenage girl things.
From her interviews she seems to be level-headed, mature and calm, taking all the attention and subsequent pressure in her stride. After winning Saturday’s game, Raducanu joked in a post-match interview that when she was packing to join the Wimbledon bubble, her parents said: “Aren’t you packing too many sets of match kit?”
It’s early days of course but she appears refreshingly unspoilt by the usual culture of tantrums and narcissism that can blight young players fresh on the scene (see, for example, Nick Kyrgios).
A lack of positive, relatable role models is one of the reasons why, by the age of 14, girls drop out of sports twice as often as boys, according to the Women’s Sports Foundation. Let’s hope that Emma’s example can help turn this tide.
