Emma Raducanu is having a pretty bad season overall and despite breaking into the top 10 for the first time a few years ago the pressure keeps rising for her.
The Earth keeps rotating around the Sun and its axis and each time it completes a full rotation around its axis a day passes. With each passing day, Emma Raducanu is closer to returning to the place where everything started for her. Last year's US Open is when Emma Raducanu skipped 15 steps and became a global superstar and a new ambassador for tennis with millions of people captivated by what she achieved.
John McEnroe had a front-row seat to it all and it was like a slap in the face for him. Only two months prior did he slam Raducanu as not being able to handle the pressure after her Wimbledon retirement. He was fair to admit he was wrong but he really wasn't. Raducanu had no pressure at the US Open but every type of pressure since then and she's not handling it well at all.
Emma Raducanu, there's a lot on her shoulders. That’s an issue that first came up at Wimbledon when she was unable to complete that match. And then she had this historic "never-happened-before" win at the US Open. Now expectations are much higher and that makes it that much harder.
Raducanu herself has shut down talks of pressure in a fiery press conference following her Wimbledon exit. She said there was no pressure on her because she's a Slam champion believing all the pressure is on those who never won one. Fair comment with a dose of truth however the heavy pushback to the narratives clearly highlights she is aware of it. There is pressure on her whether she is ready to admit it or not.
There are obviously a lot of great positives: there are people throwing money at her and she's famous for a great reason – winning the US Open – but the key is hopefully she has the right people around her. Hopefully, they can allow her to flourish.
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