{"id":288500,"date":"2025-07-24T17:55:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T17:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/288500\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T17:55:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T17:55:10","slug":"emma-raducanu-explains-why-she-only-has-a-few-friends-on-the-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/288500\/","title":{"rendered":"Emma Raducanu explains why she only has ‘a few friends on the tour’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Emma Raducanu admits she doesn\u2019t have too many friends on the WTA Tour and she explained there is a good reason why it is \u201cvery difficult to really open up\u201d to fellow players.<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old made her top-level debut at the age of 18 in 2021, with her first breakthrough coming at Wimbledon when she reached the fourth round on her main draw debut.<\/p>\n

The teenager then shot to fame a few months later when she became the first qualifier \u2013 man or woman \u2013 to win a Grand Slam singles title as she won 10 matches in a row to lift the US Open trophy.<\/p>\n

Raducanu<\/a> has had several ups and downs since then as she struggled with injuries and form, but she is making her way back up the WTA Rankings again as she currently sits at No 46<\/a> after spending several months outside of the top 100 in 2023\/2024.<\/p>\n

After several years full-time on the tour, she has formed bonds with a few players, including fellow Brit Katie Boulter and former world No 2 Paula Badosa, but they will all be the first to admit that the friendships are not too close.<\/p>\n

Raducanu admits there is a reason why she is uneasy about opening up to her rivals.<\/p>\n

When asked if she would like to get to know more players on the WTA Tour<\/a>, the world No 46 replied: \u201cI don\u2019t know. I think when we\u2019re on the tour, it\u2019s very difficult to really open up with other players that you\u2019re competing against. I think for me I have a few friends on the tour, but it does add another dimension when you play them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have really good friends at home that I can trust and speak to, but other than that, you know, I don\u2019t think that, yeah, this is \u2013 for me, I just find it harder to compete against a person I\u2019m friends with.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2021 US Open is currently in action at the Washington DC Open and up next is a first-ever career meeting with fellow Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka.<\/p>\n

Former world No 1 Osaka is also making her way back to the top after taking time out from the game as she became a mother in July 2023.<\/p>\n

Before going on maternity leave, Osaka also struggled with her form.<\/p>\n

Emma Raducanu News<\/p>\n

US Open mixed doubles suffers big-name withdrawals. Could Emma Raducanu, Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner follow suit?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The 13 Grand Slam champions Emma Raducanu has played: ft. Serena, Swiatek, Osaka<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Asked about similarities in their rise to the top and current performances, Raducanu said: \u201cI think, you know, different because, again, when I won my US Open, I came from school, I was no one, I was 200 in the world, and Naomi had already won Indian Wells.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was already a known figure on the tour, and people kind of expected, okay, like, she\u2019s going to start doing well and start winning Slams.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhereas I think when I won, it was completely out of nowhere. It means that I didn\u2019t quite build the foundations she had when she won her Grand Slams, which I think is why she was able to repeat and win another three, you know, back-to-back US Open and Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe, yeah, I think she was an established, like, pro tour player, whereas I didn\u2019t necessarily feel that way. It\u2019s probably why I had a lot more dips afterwards.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut yeah, it\u2019s good to see the similarities now. I think we have both kind of started doing better and started enjoying the process more and enjoying developing. Yeah, I think it\u2019s nice that after, you know, having such big highs and then some lows to both be working towards, you know, going up again.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Raducanu is certainly heading in the right direction<\/a> following several lows in recent years and one big reason for that is her \u201cmore relaxed\u201d approach to life on and off court.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still think I\u2019m building it [a solid foundation], but I feel positive because I\u2019m actually building it in a consistent way,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I feel like, okay, the way I\u2019m going, like, it\u2019s going towards having \u2013 you\u2019re never really fully complete but a more complete foundation, and I\u2019ll be more solid and have a higher base level, so I think I\u2019m working towards that now.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I\u2019m just doing it in a better way. I\u2019m a lot more content, more relaxed. I\u2019m less kind of volatile, I guess, in general. I\u2019m working in a really good way and just excited to kind of keep this and try and win as many days as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emma Raducanu admits she doesn\u2019t have too many friends on the WTA Tour and she explained there is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288501,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4105],"tags":[79,1068,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-288500","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114909500224792069","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288500","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=288500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}