Victoria Azarenka has sympathised with Emma Raducanu's struggles since winning the US Open but issued advice on how the Brit can get back to form.
Since Raducanu stunned the tennis world by winning the 2021 US Open, despite entering as a relatively unknown qualifier, her career has suffered. The 20-year-old has dropped out of the Top 100 on the WTA Tour recently and has come under fire for splitting with former coach Sebastian Sachs - her sixth coach in two years.
The former British number one has also been involved with lucrative sponsorship deals, which may have impacted the focus on her tennis career. When reflecting on Raducanu's personal tussle to stay at the top in tennis, Azarenka told the Up Front Podcast that the 20-year-old's difficulties were sad, but that she should create a smaller team to regain her focus on tennis.
"When Emma [Raducanu] won the US Open, what I noticed at that time was that everybody latched onto her as if she was their friend, and I was thinking that they probably didn’t even know her a month ago. In a way, it didn’t feel very real."
"It’s sad to hear her say that sometimes she wishes she had never won the US Open, but I think this is a very momentary feeling because if you said to her ‘Okay, we’ll take it away and you can carry on’, I’m not sure she would agree to that. I think the advice I would have given her is that you should not forget the people who drove you to that moment and who helped you get there. From my experience, I would say she needs to have a very small circle and a very solid one.”
Raducanu has not featured on the WTA Tour since she was eliminated in the first round of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix by Jelena Ostapenko. She then withdrew from the remainder of clay court season and had three separate surgeries, and could be ruled out for the rest of the 2023 campaign.
However, the 20-year-old showed some signs of a return to form earlier in the season with a run to the final 16 at Indian Wells.
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