John McEnroe has been a very vocal critic of Emma Raducanu, but his intentions were never bad; it came from the point of view of somebody who knew how hard it is to be successful.
Raducanu broke out in major fashion at an extremely young age, and McEnroe understood that it would not be easy for the young British player to follow that up with consistent play.
He's been there, and his comments were never that quite different from other tennis legends who were skeptical as well. Even so, he's always backed Raducanu as someone supremely talented, and he believes she can win Wimbledon this year.
Of course, one of the questions is her physical fitness, but according to McEnroe, if Raducanu can stay healthy, there is no question about whether she could win at SW19.
"She's a supremely talented individual and has an excellent chance to make a good run. If she's physically fit, I'd be very surprised if she lost early, to think she can't win Wimbledon is ridiculous."
Raducanu has the whole nation's expectations on her shoulders and it's going to be really hard to satisfy them after she spoiled them at the US Open.
She played fairly well at Wimbledon last year, so she's certainly good enough on the grass courts for a deep run. McEnroe understands all of that, and he believes she'll handle it well.
"Expectations go up greatly when you pull off something like that, and Emma did something no one in the history of tennis has done. I'm assuming expectations in Britain are pretty high, the change in her life is overwhelming, the scrutiny is a bit much at times, it's the same everywhere, not just Britain. The bigger you are, the harder you fall."
0 Comments