Emma Raducanu’s tears prove she really does care about the tennis

ROLAND GARROS — The trolls were out in force after just 25 minutes of Emma Raducanu’s first setps into the French Open draw.

Handed a 6-0 scoreline in the opening set by Solana Sierra – colloquially called a bagel in tennis after the round “0” – the social media reaction was utterly predictable.

“Still time to change coach before the end of the match.” “Her press conferences are longer than her sets.” “A model who occasionally turns up to a tennis tournament.”

Raducanu made a match of the second set but still lost 6-0, 7-6, and more criticism streamed in, claiming she did not care and would be glad of the extra time off in the spiritual home of fashion. 

In fact the truth, if it wasn’t already clear, was never more so than when the 23-year-old struggled to hold back the tears as she was asked: “To stop and come back all the time, what kind of mindset do you need to just go through that?”

Tears welling in her eyes and her voice starting to quiver, she told reporters, “I’m trying my best each day, and I think that’s all I can ask of myself”.

What seemed to strike a nerve was that her efforts to do what is, simply put, her hobby that became her job are constantly hampered by injury and illness.

This latest grand slam struggle can be traced back to a Romanian tournament way back in February where she reached the final in Cluj, during which she contracted a mystery bug. She carried on to the Middle East and the US where she “played through the pain” of an intermittent but significant illness. It had a cumulative effect and after she lost a second-round in Indian Wells, the Brit admitted defeat. She did not play for another two months, citing post-viral symptoms and a lingering cough.

It meant she had just one warm-up match for the French Open, beaten in Strasbourg by world No 94 Diane Parry, but insisted after losing this latest match to Sierra by an even wider margin that it had been her own decision to come to Paris and play, despite being severely undercooked.

Raducanu said: “I didn’t necessarily do as well as I’d like to this year, but I think the only way to kind of face and improve how I’m feeling is to go through the tough parts, to go through the pain of it, and hopefully come out on the other side better and stronger.”

She added: “It was going to be a big ask coming in. I really wanted to play the French, so that was my decision.”

And there is a lot to be said for Raducanu making her own decisions these days. For all the jokes about changing coaches, she was very clear after arriving at Roland Garros that she herself had rehired Andrew Richardson, the man who guided her to the US Open, and that it was her “authentic” decision.

The first time round, it is understood that her father Ian was the driving force behind the decision to get rid of Richardson just a few days after winning in New York, believing he was not experienced enough on the WTA Tour. After five years working at an academy in Spain, he is no more so, but the former player is someone whom Raducanu trusts implicitly and has since she was a child.

She will have to listen to him, though. Her 6-0 first-set humiliation by Sierra was as much her own fault, with 13 unforced errors (42 was her final tally) in comparison to 0 first-set winners. She was clearly trying to hit almost every ball for a winner. It was like an opening batter trying to hit every ball for six, or a midfielder shooting from range every time she gets the ball.

It was the game she played to win the US Open, but that was on the super-fast courts of New York, and with a generation of tennis ball that was retired soon after. On the heavy clay of Paris, points have to be earned through graft – and while Raducanu is prepared to put in the practice hours when she is able to, she needs to learn patience on the match court too. Her previous coach Francis Roig preached it, but that partnership fell apart; her bond with Richardson will be harder to break.

I still believe that her desire to succeed and her will to win are not in question. Her body and public opinion may not align with that, but the mind, it seems, remains willing.

المصدر: iNews