Emma Raducanu has spoken about her relationship with Carlos Alcaraz following the announcement of the pair’s US Open partnership.
It was revealed by the US Open last week that Alcaraz and Raducanu had entered the tournament’s revamped mixed doubles event as a wildcard pairing.
The new mixed doubles tournament at Flushing Meadows will take place the week before the singles events begin. It will feature eight teams based on the combined singles rankings of the two players and eight wildcard teams.
Alcaraz revealed he made the request to Raducanu and admitted the Brit took some time before accepting his invitation.
“She took a while,” the Spaniard said, laughing.
“No, not that much, not that much. But obviously she had to ask, and she had to think a little bit. But it wasn’t immediate, so…”
Asked about waiting to agree to play with Alcaraz, Raducanu joked: “Gotta keep ’em on their toes (laughing)!
“I mean, of course, I had to ask my team if they wanted me to play. But for me, when he asked me, I was going to say yes, I just had to kind of go through the formality of asking my coach, so I didn’t just make the decision.”
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The 2021 US Open winner went on to speak about her connection with Alcaraz.
“I’ve known him for years and actually in Wimbledon 2021, it was like kind of the first time I started getting to know him, and I had a good run there and then also again in the US Open in 2021.
“And I remember he was always playing the day before me and I was playing like the second day of the round. And I would see him win and then I would have motivation to win and get myself into that position too.
“And I remember he beat Stef [Tsitsipas] in the third round and it was like a big win, his breakout kind of win on a big stage and it was really cool to kind of, I guess, go through that tournament together and then I kept going through the US Open, but we were staying in touch for the whole time and yeah, it’s nice.
“We have a good relationship still. He’s obviously overtaken me a lot, but it’s nice that we have that from a while ago.
“I think for all of us, we really kind of value those connections that we had from when we were young because when you become a bit more known or a bit more successful, you just find yourself reverting back to people you knew from a young age because you’re like, that’s a real genuine connection, because it becomes very busy and you have a lot more friends, but the ones that you’ve known for a long time mean a lot more to you.”
Raducanu is in action at this week’s WTA 250 tournament in Eastbourne, where she will play An Li in her first match.
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The post Emma Raducanu responds to Carlos Alcaraz saying she ‘took a while’ to accept his doubles request appeared first on Tennis365.
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