Emma Raducanu on injury, coaches, and King Charles: “Sometimes I wish I’d never won the US Open”

The 2021 US Open champion Emma Raducanu has struggled with fitness, form, and a consistent coaching team since her stunning victory at Flushing Meadows, when she came through qualifying to win her maiden Grand Slam.

And in an exclusive interview with the Times, the 20-year-old revealed that she has had some very low moments when she has even wished that her rise to fame had never happened.

“That moment on the court, when I was celebrating, I was like, ‘I would literally trade any struggle in the world for this moment. Anything can come my way, I will take it for what I have right now because this is the best thing in the world.’ I promised myself that, on the court that day,” she said.

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“Since then I’ve had a lot of setbacks, one after the other. I am resilient, my tolerance is high, but it’s not easy. And sometimes I think to myself, ‘I wish I’d never won the US Open, I wish that didn’t happen,’ then I am like, ‘Remember that feeling, remember that promise, because it was completely pure.'”

Raducanu: King Charles asked me if I’d found a coach yet

Raducanu added that as a teenage Grand Slam champion she was “extremely naive” and described the tour as “not a very nice, trusting a safe space”. One of the big lessons she had learnt, she said, was “keep your circle as small as possible”.

On the subject of her ongoing injury struggles, she pinpointed the end of Wimbledon last year as the moment when the pain in her wrists began to escalate.

“I started with a new coach and I was really motivated to get going. We were overtraining, a lot of repetition, and I carried on even through pain because I didn’t want to be perceived as weak.”

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And after all the speculation around her quickfire rotation through coaches, she related that when she went to receive her MBE, she discovered that even King Charles III is aware of the gossip.

“He asked me, ‘So, have you found a coach?’

“I was like, ‘That’s good banter!’ It was so funny, I was laughing because everyone was ripping me for not having a coach. I was like, ‘The fact you know this, I feel honoured!'”

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