British tennis player Emma Raducanu is looking forward to starting the defense of her US Open title at the end of the month and is feeling no pressure from the task ahead.
The teenager achieved something significant at Flushing Meadows a year ago when ranked 150 in the world, she first made it through the qualifiers and then won her first Grand Slam title.
The triumph in New York made her a British fan favorite, but since then she failed to win another trophy, forced to withdraw through injuries in Rome in May and Nottingham in June, and in Roland Garros and Wimbledon was eliminated already in the second round.
“The tension comes from what I have set myself as a goal, or from my expectations. I feel the tension and think about it only when I’m at a press conference, because almost every question is related to the expectations for me”, commented Emma Raducanu.
The 19-year-old British tennis player started the North American tennis summer with a quarter-final in Washington, which she lost to Russian Ludmilla Samsonova last week, and tonight she will face Italian Camila Giorgi at the first round of the WTA 1000 Canadian Open in Toronto.
The Briton is currently ranked tenth in the world with 2,772 points, but 2,000 of those have come from winning the US Open title in 2021. This means that with an early exit, she will now slide quite a bit down the rankings.
“I’m looking forward to getting back on the court in New York. Whatever happens there, it will be a wonderful end to a chapter in my career, the completion of a full cycle. Regardless of the results, I will be able to start fresh and clean. Even if I lose all the points I won, I will train hard and try to climb to the top again. In any case, it will be like a fresh start for me”, said Emma Raducanu.
