Being Emma Raducanu is not the easiest task. For all the positives that come with achieving fame early, as she did after her stunning US Open triumph as an 18-year-old in 2021, the obligations and attention can be intense. Invariably when she plays her photo is splashed on the back pages and her every move is scrutinised. At Wimbledon the attention grows exponentially and nothing is off limits, as Raducanu discovered when she batted away questions about a possible romance with Carlos Alcaraz, a longtime friend,with whom she will play mixed doubles at the US Open.
As Andy Murray learned over many years, dealing with all that takes experience and patience. No wonder, then, that Raducanu says she is not looking much further than her first-round battle with the 17-year-old Welsh player Mimi Xu on Monday. “Truthfully I don’t expect much from myself this year,” she said on the eve of the event.
“I know I’ve been dealing with certain things. I just want to go out there and embrace the moment. I want to embrace the occasion. I know there’s not many opportunities to be playing atWimbledon. You get it once a year and for a finite amount of time. I’m just looking forward to going out there and feeling the surroundings and the atmosphere.”
Though the 22-year-old has already experienced so much in her career, it is worth remembering that this will be only her fourth Wimbledon. She reached the last 16 on her debut in 2021 and again last year, showing her aptitude for grass and revelling in front of her home crowd. After having surgery on both her wrists and one ankle in 2023, she dropped outside the top 300 but has worked her way back up the rankings to No 40, which also makes her the British No 1 again, a nice rivalry with Katie Boulter developing.
Her grass-court season began with two good wins at the revamped women’s event at the Queen’s Club, and then in Eastbourne last weekshe lost in the second round against Maya Joint, the Australian who went on to win the title. There Raducanu said she was dealing with some bad news off the court but she was all smiles this weekend, practising with Boulter on Sunday.
“I had one day off after Eastbourne, which is not much time,” Raducanu said. “Right now I’m just happy to be at Wimbledon. That is a great kind of motivation to just keep going and deal with everything else afterwards.”
Raducanu has also been battling a niggling back problem in recent weeks, with occasional spasms a cause for concern and discomfort but nothing serious. “It’s just been managing [it], as I’ve said the last few weeks,” she said. “I wouldn’t say it’s 100% but a lot of the time with tennis players nothing is ever 100%. So just taking it as it comes.”
John McEnroe, a three-time Wimbledon singles champion, had back problems early in his career. Reflecting now he wonders whether they were caused by the stress of the tour. Raducanu has the use of all the best doctors, of course, but stress is an undoubted factor in players’ injuries and maybe something she looks at too, in due course.
Providing Raducanu gets past Xu she is likely to play Marketa Vondrousova, the 2023 champion, which would be a far from easy proposition. Get through that and the world No 1 and tournament favourite, Aryna Sabalenka, may well be waiting in round three.Having pulled out on the opening day of last year’s eventwith a shoulder injury, the Belarusian cannot wait to get started. “I’m super excited, super happy to be back, to be healthy and to be able to compete at this beautiful tournament,” she said.
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Sabalenka and Coco Gauff,who beat her to win the French Open three weeks ago, are seeded to reach the final, but both know there are many threats and dangers lurking in the draw, including Madison Keys, the American who won her first grand slam title at the Australian Open in January,when she beat Sabalenka in a brilliant final.
Centre Court(1.30pm BST start)
F Fognini (It) v C Alcaraz (Sp, 2)
P Badosa (Sp, 9) v K Boulter (GB)
A Rinderknech (Fr) v A Zverev (Ger, 3)
No.1 Court(1pm BST start)
A Sabalenka (Blr, 1) v C Branstine (Can)
J Fearnley (GB) v J Fonseca (Bra)
E Raducanu (GB) v M Xu (GB)
No.2 Court(11am BST start)
B Bonzi (Fr) v D Medvedev (Rus, 9)
E Ruse (Rom) v M Keys (US, 6)
J Paolini (It, 4) v A Sevastova (Lat)
T Fritz (US, 5) v G Mpetshi-Perricard (Fr)
No.3 Court(11am BST start)
S Kartal (GB) v J Ostapenko (Lat, 20)
H Rune (Den, 8) v N Jarry (Chi)
M Berrettini (It, 32) v K Majchrzak (Pol)
K Siniakova (Cz) v Q Zheng (Chn, 5)
Court 12(11am BST start)
E Moller (Den) v F Tiafoe (US, 12)
V Royer (Fr) v S Tsitsipas (Gr, 24)
L Fernandez (Can, 29) v H Klugman (GB)
M Vondrousova (Cz) v M Kessler (US, 32)
Court 18
A Bondar (Hun) v E Svitolina (Ukr, 14)
C Norrie (GB) v R Bautista Agut (Sp)
M McDonald (US) v K Khachanov (Rus, 17)
N Osaka (Jpn) v T Gibson (Aus)
Jasmine Paolini, the runner-up last year, is back, as is last year’s champion, Barbora Krejcikova, who missed the first five months of this season because of a back injury.The Czech’s victory last yearmade her the eighth different champion in the past eight tournaments on the women’s side, and with Elena Rybakina (2022), Vondrousova and Petra Kvitova (2011 and 2014) the only previous champions in the draw, another new winner is a distinct possibility.
Kvitova will be making her last Wimbledon appearance, having announced she will retire after the US Open. The 35-year-old is back after missing last year’s event because of the birth of her son and plans to enjoy every moment. The left-hander’s performance in the 2014 final against Eugenie Bouchard remains one of the best of any final in Wimbledon history. She will be missed.