{"id":149363,"date":"2025-06-01T11:49:08","date_gmt":"2025-06-01T11:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/149363\/"},"modified":"2025-06-01T11:49:08","modified_gmt":"2025-06-01T11:49:08","slug":"serena-williams-nightmare-may-haunt-emma-raducanu-as-brit-risks-copying-maria-sharapova-tennis-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/149363\/","title":{"rendered":"Serena Williams nightmare may haunt Emma Raducanu as Brit risks copying Maria Sharapova | Tennis | Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Emma Raducanu has found her bogey opponent and the future looks extremely bleak. The Brit struggled to lay a glove on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/iga-swiatek\" data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|AutoLink\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Iga Swiatek<\/a> at the French Open and if she is to win another Grand Slam, she&#8217;ll need to avoid her in the draw altogether.<\/p>\n<p>Annabel Croft called out Raducanu for her &#8220;cold and dismissive&#8221; handshake at the net but after 79 frustrating minutes of failing to find a single answer, it was bound to spill over.<\/p>\n<p>This match-up has a strikingly eerie resemblance to Maria Sharapova&#8217;s struggles against Serena Williams.<\/p>\n<p>Sharapova lost 19 consecutive matches against her American rival, spanning 15 years. It will take a miracle for Raducanu to avoid a similar fate.<\/p>\n<p>Sharapova&#8217;s five Grand Slam titles came when she avoided Williams in the draw and Raducanu needs the same luck.<\/p>\n<p>The 2021 US Open winner has played five, lost five against Swiatek. No matter how many coaches she burns through, this cycle looks impossible to break.<\/p>\n<p><strong>McIlroy lets Nicklaus down<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>RORY McIlroy has seriously let Jack Nicklaus down.<\/p>\n<p>The Northern Irishman is within his own right to skip any event he wants, even the Memorial Tournament.<\/p>\n<p>But to not even pick up the phone and let Nicklaus know he isn&#8217;t coming, after going to him for advice before the Masters, lacks class.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Earps recognition<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>MARY Earps deservedly received some criticism for the timing of her international retirement, just five weeks before the European Championship.<\/p>\n<p>But we can&#8217;t forget the key role she played in elevating the women&#8217;s game in the UK.<\/p>\n<p>The England Lionesses&#8217; fixtures are now firmly on the sporting calendar and attract a much greater audience, and in large part it&#8217;s down to Earp.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emma Raducanu has found her bogey opponent and the future looks extremely bleak. The Brit struggled to lay&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149364,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4105],"tags":[1070,5066,10095,79,1068,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-149363","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-emma-raducanu","9":"tag-french-open","10":"tag-serena-williams","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-tennis","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114607958619048601","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}