Before August 2021, the name Emma Raducanu was only known by those in tennis circles.
The Canadian-born Briton turned professional in 2018, winning her first tournament in May, but a surprise call-up to Britain’s Fed Cup team saw her dubbed as “the British player with the most potential of her generation” by British newspaper the Telegraph.
But for Raducanu, now 22, there is unquestionably life before and after the 2021 US Open.
The Fairytale of New York it was described. A 150-ranked qualifier, not just unfancied but unheard of, winning 10 matches without even dropping a set to stun the tennis world. By the time of her final appearance, the UK in particular was gripped by tennis fever in a way it had not been since Andy Murray. Her final was broadcast on free-to-air television, an honour usually reserved only for Wimbledon.
Come the morning, Raducanu’s face was on every newspaper. MIRACLE one read, ABSOLUTE EMM-ENSE said another. In the space of two weeks, the teenager from Bromley had been jettisoned from an up-and-coming talent to a bonafide star.
Life back then was pretty sweet for the newly-minted Grand Slam champion, the first British female for 44 years to win one of the big four. She rose 332 places in the rankings, received congratulatory messages from the late Queen Elizabeth II and a MBE. She was named Sportswoman of the Year by the Sunday Times. The Guardian ranked her final as the 47th best TV show of the year. She was named BBC Sports Personality of the Year, the first tennis player since Murray in 2016 and the first female player since Virginia Wade in 1977. Life would have felt its most surreal to her when attended fashion’s most famous night, the Met Gala, in the same city where her triumph had occurred a few days before.
But tennis has a short memory. The idiom ‘you are only as good as your last match’ rings true in all sports but the nature of single’s tennis means there is nowhere to hide when the tide turns against you.
That first sign of trouble came less than two weeks after the US Open win.
A straight-sets defeat in the opening match of the delayed Indian Wells tournament. Dismissed as a post-US open hangover, there was not too much concern about the career trajectory of Raducanu at the time who many would assume would do like all greats before her and go from success to success.
And yet, it is at the Indian Wells venue that her latest crushing defeat has occurred – a 6-3, 6-2 battering at the hands of Moyuka Uchijima. It is a defeat, her fifth this year, that has shone an even brighter spotlight on her.
That spotlight which hangs around Raducanu like a ball and chain was put into ugly context during the Dubai Championships in February when the Briton was approached by a stalker. Hiding behind the umpire’s chair, Raducanu held back tears while the man was removed from the stands and subsequently given a restraining order.
It was a horrible incident for the young woman, a breakin of the inner sanctum of safety that tennis courts are supposed to be for athletes and yet another unwanted discretion for her to have to navigate.
Trying to put that incident behind her, she headed for California and Indian Wells, a tournament she described as her favourite outside of the slams, but the result has been concerningly predictable.
Three long years have come and gone since Raducanu’s last final, In WTA 100 events, she has never made it past round four, only once getting that far in 2023. Raducanu has tried everything to rediscover that Slam-winning form that continues to elude her. Coaches have changed, surgeries have been had, she even tried working with different types of balls to get back to how she played in 2021. But even her most ardent supporter will find it hard to suggest she has lived up to her potential.
Or maybe she has? Trying to decipher Raducanu poses a conundrum. Was the real Emma Raducanu the US Open winner? Or is it the one that keeps departing tournaments at early stages?
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She would never admit it but the US Open win has proven to be both a blessing and a curse for Raducanu. A life-defining moment but one that raised expectations so high for a player who may never reach that height again.
More than Uchijima at Indian Wells, more than Swiatek at the Australian Open, more than any other opponent – Raducanu is playing against the very idea of who she is.
There is no shame in the career she has had. $4,685,567 in prize money, 11 Grand Slam appearances. She is one of just 131 women in the history of tennis to have won a Grand Slam, and yet the crowning moment of her career has come right at the start of it, placing an unrealistic expectation on her for the rest of her playing days and making every defeat amplified.
At 22, time is on her side but with every passing year that goes by, it is becoming increasingly clear which is the real Raducanu and which is the fairytale version.
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