Olympics champion Puig backs Raducanu for success in the future
WTA
2016 Rio Olympics gold medalist Monica Puig is not playing anymore, but she's well aware of what it takes to be a successful player, advising Emma Raducanu.
The Olympic champion saw her career get destroyed by injuries, which was unfortunate, but before that, Puig was a very good player. She sees that potential in Raducanu, but the British player will need to develop and further understand who she is as a player, as Puig explained when recently talking to Sky Sports.
"She still needs time to develop and time to find out who she is as a tennis player, who she is as a person, and I can sympathize with her because when I won the Olympics, it came out of nowhere. I didn't have as much media attention as she does, and I can only imagine coming from the UK, where something like that is so big. It just exploded."
Like many others, Puig underlined the need to keep the goals small. Therefore, Raducanu can work her way towards the big ones. She is a Grand Slam champion but winning Grand Slams is too much of a goal right now as she's finding herself as a professional player.
"Let go of the expectation after winning a Grand Slam. First, it's small goals, so quarter-finals, semi-finals, and finals consistently of 250 events. Maybe win a couple more matches in a row and work on things on the court."
"See your opponents. What are they doing to you? Where are the holes in my game? Start filling in those holes by practicing more on those things. It can take the pressure off her back."
Puig also warned Raducanu to stay away from social media. The Puerto Rican explained how negative of an impact it can have on a player.
"Don't focus on social media because we all know that social media is a great tool to boost your brand but it can be toxic, especially for a person like Raducanu who has so many people following her and so many people who want to see her succeed and also a lot of people who don't."
"You're not going to have everybody who loves you. You're going to have those who are not going to like you."
