5 different coaches in 5 years! The 21-year-old British tennis player, Emma Raducanu started playing tennis at the age of 5. She turned into a pro tennis player in 2018. Since then, the tennis world has seen a rapid rise in the young Brit. Raducanu won her first Grand Slam title at the age of 18. But after that, she has struggled a bit to perform on the bigger stages. Injuries and frequent changes in the coaching team have put the former number 10 in serious trouble.
Several legends of the game have criticized her, citing the importance of having a stable team to develop and nurture her game. Recently the 85YO British and 8 Grand Slam title holder, Ann Jones brutally criticized Emma Raducanu’s bizarre decisions.
Emma Raducanu is heavily criticized by the Tennis Veteran for her recent actions
Ann Jones was the first among the five players to claim the BBC gong. Emma Raducanu became the latest addition to the list after her triumph at the US Open in 2021. Raducanu became the first British woman to win a Grand Slam after Virginia Wade in 1977. But her epic run didn’t last long, and she failed to find the consistency. She has missed the majority of this season due to her wrist and ankle injuries. Raducanu had to undergo 3 different surgeries in May.
Besides injuries, her controversial remarks on her frequent changing of coaches have raised several eyebrows. She cited her coaches couldn’t ‘keep up’ with her questions. Hearing this Ann Jones said, ‘It is very sad. Well, what did she think we all did? We had to find our own answers. You have to work at things yourself. To fire a coach after she had just won the US Open was the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.’
The 85YO Brit added that life is all about momentum and one must take full advantage of it and carry on. She then went on to explain that all Raducanu needed was to improve her natural game and coaches aren’t gonna come and change her game. Jones stated these frequent changes have impacted her game and her body. ‘The results are clear. You get injured, because it’s not natural for you to hit the ball in that way. It was natural to hit it the way you hit it in the first place,’ Ann Jones.
‘How do you recover your natural game after it has been changed? It’s very difficult to find what you had before. I think she’s really enjoyed winning and I don’t think she wants to lose now. It’s a waste and we could do with a champion here,’ she said.
After a series of setbacks, Emma Raducanu now looks to make her comeback in 2024. But the comeback won’t be that easy, as the 2024 season marks the comeback year of several other superstars of the game. Can she fight back?
Despite worries about her comeback, Raducanu had a successful year off the court
She hasn’t played a single match for almost 8 months. Initially, there were doubts about her comeback next year, but now Raducanu is finally ready to fight back to the biggest stages of the game in 2024. She has already received a wildcard at the ASB Classic in Auckland which is scheduled from January 1 to January 13.
After that, there is the mega event at Melbourne Park. But the number 298 in the women’s singles ranking failed to make the cutoff for the main draw in AO
Raducanu now has to use her special ranking of number 103 to get featured in the event. Can we see her in the first Grand Slam event of 2024? Well, we’ll have to wait a bit to get this answer. But when it comes to 2023, the Brit managed to earn a total of $ 16.2M by combining her endorsements, partnerships, and prize money despite playing just 10 matches this season. Can she make 2024 a year to remember and win her second Grand Slam title?