{"id":9000,"date":"2025-06-23T21:20:08","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T21:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/9000\/"},"modified":"2025-06-23T21:20:08","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T21:20:08","slug":"emma-raducanu-opens-up-on-carlos-alcaraz-relationship-and-delay-tennis-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/9000\/","title":{"rendered":"Emma Raducanu opens up on Carlos Alcaraz relationship and delay | Tennis | Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" title=\"Emma Raducanu\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/emma-raducanu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Emma Raducanu<\/a> has shed light on her friendship with <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" title=\"Carlos Alcaraz\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/carlos-alcaraz\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> after they signed up to play mixed doubles together at the US Open later this year. Ahead of their blockbuster link-up, the Brit even headed to Queen\u2019s over the weekend to watch the world No. 2 win his semi-final match.<\/p>\n<p>Alcaraz had admitted <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/sport\/tennis\/2070035\/Carlos-Alcaraz-Emma-Raducanu-US-Open-mixed-doubles\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Raducanu took a while to respond to his request<\/a> to join forces on the doubles court. And the 22-year-old has now joked that she had to \u201ckeep him on his toes\u201d before giving a response.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, the five-time Major winner confirmed that he was the one who asked Raducanu to team up. \u201cShe took a while,\u201d he jibed.<\/p>\n<p>But Raducanu has explained that she needed to consult her team before making a final decision. \u201cGotta keep them on their toes!\u201d she laughed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI 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&#8217;t just make the decision.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The pair go way back, and Raducanu admitted Alcaraz played a role in her run to the US Open title in 2021, as she watched him make his way to the quarter-final and wanted to chase him. So it will be a full circle moment for them to team up in Flushing Meadows.<\/p>\n<p>She continued: \u201cI&#8217;ve known him for years and actually in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/wimbledon\" data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|AutoLink\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Wimbledon<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd 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.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd I remember he beat <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" title=\"Stefanos Tsitsipas\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/stefanos-tsitsipas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Stef [Tsitsipas]<\/a> 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&#8217;s nice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Raducanu gravitates towards those who have known her since before her US Open triumph, and it\u2019s no different with Alcaraz &#8211; even though he\u2019s gone on to become a multi-Grand Slam champion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have a good relationship still. He\u2019s obviously overtaken me a lot, but it&#8217;s nice that we have that from a while ago,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI 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&#8217;re like, that&#8217;s a real genuine connection, because it becomes very busy and you have a lot more friends but the ones that you&#8217;ve known for a long time mean a lot more to you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The British No. 1 can also relate to Alcaraz\u2019s need to disconnect from the sport. While the Spaniard is <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" title=\"Carlos Alcaraz enjoyed &#039;shots&#039; with Spurs star as he spills beans on Ibiza trip\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/sport\/tennis\/2068915\/carlos-alcaraz-ibiza-french-open-wimbledon-tottenham\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">known for his yearly trips to Ibiza<\/a>, Raducanu prefers more low-key activities like yoga and going on walks.<\/p>\n<p>She explained: \u201cI think in that sense, we are quite similar. We both play our best I think when we&#8217;re in a good creative way, we&#8217;re enjoying it. You see us smile on the court and have fun and really just lean into those positive emotions<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd I think whenever I have played with, you know, trying to channel any negativity or any of that kind of energy, I don&#8217;t do so well, and other players might be different, but for me, I need to be in that kind of pretty positive and creative way.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd I think that is in a way, when I see him play, he&#8217;s always got a smile on his face and enjoying it and that\u2019s I feel like why he&#8217;s able to do such crazy shots, turn points around that he&#8217;s maybe not favoured to and pull out these ridiculous shots because it&#8217;s like a coming from a place of curiosity. Like, what can I do with this? You know, like, can I turn this point around? It&#8217;s amazing to have that on the men&#8217;s side and take inspiration when I can.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Raducanu herself enjoyed a day off on Saturday, heading to the Queen\u2019s Club to watch Alcaraz in action. But she doesn\u2019t think the world No. 2 will return the favour and travel to Eastbourne this week.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI doubt it. I doubt it. But no, I saw some like really cool drop volleys and I was like, yes, let&#8217;s save some of that! But he&#8217;s got plenty to plenty of magic to bring to New York,\u201d she laughed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut it was just, I was having the day off on Saturday and I was with my friends and we were like, let&#8217;s go to Queen\u2019s and watch the tennis and then we went out and to the River Cafe in the evening, it was super nice evening, and then just came here on Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emma Raducanu has shed light on her friendship with Carlos Alcaraz after they signed up to play mixed&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9001,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[10117,1466,10120,10121,10115,10116,62,1464,10119,67,132,68,10118],"class_list":{"0":"post-9000","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-alcaraz-raducanu","9":"tag-carlos-alcaraz","10":"tag-eastbourne","11":"tag-eastbourne-tennis","12":"tag-emma-raducanu","13":"tag-raducanu-alcaraz","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-tennis","16":"tag-tennis-news","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-us-open"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114734774711991693","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}