"Maria Sharapova, Steffi Graf, every player goes through this" - Emma Raducanu recommended Rafael Nadal-like waiting time by Rennae Stubbs
Former doubles World No. 1 Rennae Stubbs has urged Emma Raducanu to trust her talent and take a break, if necessary, to get back to her best.
Raducanu took the world of tennis by storm when she won the 2021 US Open as an 18-year-old. In doing so, she also became the first-ever qualifier to win a Grand Slam.
Since then, however, she has failed to maintain her standard and eventually dropped out of the WTA top 100. As of Monday, June 12, she isn't even the top-ranked Brit anymore, with Katie Boulter taking that spot.
Earlier this year, Raducanu withdrew from the Madrid Open, stating that she needed to undergo surgeries in order to deal with her recurring injuries. She has since had surgeries on both her hands and her left ankle.
And in a recent interview, the 20-year-old revealed that she has been suffering both mentally and physically.
“I was struggling with the physical pain but the mental side of it was really difficult for me too. I always want to put forward the best version of myself, or strive for that, but I knew I couldn’t,” she told The Times.
“I very much attach my self-worth to my achievements. If I lost a match I would be really down, I would have a day of mourning, literally staring at the wall. I feel things so passionately and intensely,” she added.
When asked to comment on Raducanu's statement, Stubbs said that all professional player share that feeling.
“I can tell you, myself when I lose a match, I didn't want to leave my hotel room for a day or so. I know Maria Sharapova, same thing. She wouldn't leave her room for like a couple of days when she lost to a couple of US Opens. She would stay in her hotel room for a couple of days,” she told SportsTalkOnPrime.
“I mean, Steffi Graf, every player goes through this, every single player attaches their self-worth to winning and losing. And they think it's better to almost do well and ruminate and suffer. It's almost like a self-loathing 24 hours before they feel like ‘Why I can't be happy?’,” she added.
Stubbs, who has previously worked as Serena Williams' coach, also urged Raducanu to trust herself and work towards getting back to full fitness.
“Emma, you are good enough. You've proven it, you’ve won a Grand Slam already, you're a great player. You made the fourth round of Wimbledon. These are all the things that you're still capable of doing. Get your health, get yourself healthy. Get the right people around. Don't do anything more than you need to do,” she said.
She even urged the Briton to take a leaf out of Rafael Nadal's career by taking as long as one year, if needed, to get back to her best before returning to competitive action.
“I would wait an entire year. I would get yourself, like Rafael Nadal, get yourself a hundred percent ready to go. Get yourself fit, get yourself strong again and get back out there on the tennis court. And I would wait a year to do that and I would do it next year,” she said.
“Get the right team around you because you're good enough and I hope she is because she's a great kid and I really respect her a lot. I respect her a lot for saying the stuff that she said in this article,” she added.
Boris Becker believes Emma Raducanu's surgeries are "career-threatening"
Former World No. 1 Boris Becker has expressed concern about Emma Raducanu’s tennis future.
In light of Raducanu spending time on the sidelines after undergoing multiple surgeries, Becker questioned how Raducanu would fare on her comeback as players often struggle to recover from major operations.
“The surgeries that she has had are, in my opinion, career-threatening. Having surgery on your playing wrist, and as a two-handed player, the other wrist – and then on your ankle – is tough to bear for a young woman,” he said.
Raducanu recently took to social media to state that she has begun working on her recovery.
"Working on bringing my forearm back," she wrote on her Instagram.