Emma Raducanu: I’ve fallen back in love with tennis

Emma Raducanu declared she has “rekindled a fire inside me” by playing in front of home crowds again as she beamed her way through her pre-tournament interviews at the Rothesay International in Eastbourne.  Having reached the semi-finals in Nottingham 10 days’ ago, Raducanu is due to play the former US Open champion Sloane Stephens in Tuesday’s first-round match. And if good vibes could be converted into forehand winners, we would be looking at a straight-sets beatdown.

“I’m just really into it at the moment,” said Raducanu. “I love the sport. I love tennis. I’ve really rekindled a light and a fire inside of me. Just very happy and enjoying it a lot.  “I would say right before Nottingham it happened,” she added. “I’m just really grateful to have this feeling again because it’s something that I’ve been missing for the last few years. I haven’t felt this good about my tennis and just excited and passionate for a long, long time.”

It’s easy to forget how few matches Raducanu has played on home soil: just 11 at tour level. Until this season, the only time she gained any momentum on the grass was in 2021, her very first summer as a professional.  Only a few weeks after completing her A-Levels, Raducanu arrived at Wimbledon as a complete unknown, and promptly routed Marketa Vondrousova – now the defending champion – in straight sets in the second round.  As we know, Raducanu went on to win the US Open a couple of months later, triggering an unprecedented avalanche of hype. Only recently, after a couple of fallow seasons, has the clamour around her begun to quieten.

Asked if she ever discusses her US Open experience with other former champions – such as Stephens, for instance – Raducanu shook her head.  “Winning a slam is different,” she explained. “And in the fashion I did it, I don’t think anyone else has been in that position, so [they] can’t really understand. Now I feel like I can play and enjoy tennis, and just be like: ‘I’ve really done that.’ I don’t need to play tennis but I do it because I love it.

“I have a big joy for playing in the UK,” Raducanu added. “I missed it last year obviously [because of double wrist surgery] and it’s nice, you forget the feeling. I think that it’s just showing in my practices and it’s showing in my day to day. I think I’m just putting my personality on the court [and] I’m a lot brighter and bubblier.

“Someone actually commented the other day: ‘It’s like [you’re] back to your old self.’ And I would actually say ‘No, it’s my new self’, because I have the experiences that I’ve learned from the past me, too. I’m just happy and I like figuring out the challenges because I know there are inevitably going to be some.”

Despite her status as a rival slam champion, Stephens should make a beatable first-round opponent. She hasn’t thrived on grass for some time, and is coming in on a sequence of six defeats from seven matches.  The last time these two players met, it was in Australia in what was Raducanu’s first grand-slam match after her US Open triumph. Raducanu came through in three sets and clearly annoyed Stephens by yelling in triumph after the very first point.

“There’s going to be a lot of ups and downs,” said a snippy Stephens after that match. “I think she, yeah, has just a lot to learn. I was talking to someone in the locker-room, and I’m like: ‘We’ll be here when she comes down.’”  Asked about that “ups and downs” comment on Monday, Raducanu replied “I’m not going to deny that. She could say that because she was in a similar situation I guess [after Stephens won the 2017 US Open].

“It’s obviously a very challenging match and Sloane’s an amazing opponent. Last time we played she hadn’t played for a while I think so she was a bit rusty I would say in that match.”  Raducanu also suggested that she has learned to harness the British crowd’s support without becoming overwhelmed by expectation.  “Inevitably, even in the tournaments in the UK that aren’t Wimbledon, you feel an element of pressure,” she said. “But I think the way to spin it is: ‘All of these people have come here to watch me.’ It’s just great and [about] using that energy.

“I’m way less focused on the result [than before]. I know with the way that I’m training and the way that I’m competing and fighting on the court, good things are 100 per cent going to happen.  “I have full faith and belief in that now and I can actually say it and mean it at the same time. For me, that’s the best situation to be in. I was trying to figure out ‘What’s my why?’ and now I just love what I’m doing. I think that’s the best place to be.”