"Taking the lessons I’ve learnt this year" - Emma Raducanu gets intimate about her tennis life during fan-interaction
Emma Raducanu recently answered fan questions about her tennis life. The young icon, who has HSBC as one of her sponsors, took over their social media channel to interact with her fans.
Being a global sporting star, Emma Raducanu was asked about her repertoire of languages. The British tennis player, who is of Chinese-Romanian descent, revealed that she is well-versed in English and could speak some Mandarin and Romanian. Raducanu, who was born in Canada, joked that she also spoke "Canadian-American".
“Languages, I speak English, Canadian-American – no I’m kidding, some Mandarin and Romanian,” she said.
When asked about her favorite place to play tennis, 2022 Korea Open semifinalist Emma Raducanu said that she loved playing at the tournament in Seoul. Whereas, for training, the 20-year-old preferred Singapore.
“My favorite place to play tennis in the world – tournament is Seoul, and training is Singapore,” she said.
Speaking about her go-to food after training sessions, Emma Raducanu revealed that she snacks on boiled egg whites.
“My favorite snack after training, is a bit out there, maybe two boiled egg whites,” Raducanu disclosed.
The 2021 US Open champion further revealed that she idolized the 2011 French Open champion and the 2014 Australian Open Champion Li Na for her intense game style and athletic abilities.
“I’d say, my favorite tennis idol is Li Na. I loved her intensity and athleticism,” she conveyed.
The former World No. 10 also admitted that being able to push herself and train even when not feeling up to it is what keeps her going.
“What motivates me to keep training is the satisfaction feeling I get after training and at the end of the day. I feel really proud for pushing myself, even if I might not have felt like it,” Emma Raducanu noted.
Touching upon her expectations from the 2023 season, the 20-year-old revealed that, in her second full year on tour, she would try to take lessons from her challenging 2022 season.
“I’m really looking forward to another full year on tour. I just had my first one, and taking the lessons I’ve learnt this year and applying them on to the next one,” she stated.
"The expectations of her repeating (the 2021 US Open feat) were extremely unrealistic" - Emma Raducanu’s ex-coach Dmitry Tursunov
Emma Raducanu went through a tough year in 2022, trying to replicate her 2021 US Open success. In the process, the youngster made numerous changes to her training. One of her latest collaborations was with Dmitry Tursunov, who had nothing but high words of appreciation for the emerging tennis star, and noted that people’s expectations of her were unrealistic.
“Honestly, the expectations of her repeating (the 2021 US Open feat) were extremely unrealistic and anyone who understands anything about tennis would agree to that,” Tursunov said.
"I think she was also very realistic, she understood that she's got sort of a long way to improve and climb. And I think she was absolutely ready for it and hungry to improve,” he continued. “From my perspective, there's only positive things that I can say about her, like, just the way she handled it, how professional she is for her age. I wish I was like that when I played."