Emma Raducanu lost in the 2nd round of Wimbledon to Caroline Garcia but she fiercely dismissed the notion of buckling under pressure reminding everyone that she won a slam and she's not even 20 yet.
Yes, Emma Raducanu won the US Open as a teenager and everybody rushed to anoint her the next big thing. Many former pros warned against something like that explaining that she will need time to fully find herself after a superbly epic run at the US Open.
Speaking after the match Raducanu fiercely rejected any talk about her buckling under pressure calling that idea 'a joke'.
There is no pressure, why is there any pressure?‘I am still 19. It is a joke. I literally won a [Grand] Slam. Yes, I have had attention. But I’m a slam champion, so no one’s going to take that away from me. If anything, the pressure is on those who haven’t done that.
In her own mind, it was the lack of matches that ultimately proved troublesome to overcome. As she explained after the match, 7 hours of tennis in one month is not good enough to play against players who have competed for weeks. Garcia won Bad Homburg last week so she's been in top form for a while. She also confirmed she was fully fit and the injury did not affect her.
I didn’t feel anything out there, I declared myself fully fit when I walked out there onto the court on the first day. But I’ve played seven hours of tennis in a month so to even compete with these girls at this level and win a round I think is a pretty good achievement.
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