Global Courant
The British took the American Grand Slam trophy after having started in the qualy and with just 18 years. One more chapter on the importance of mental health in high performance sport.
In August 2021, Emma Raducanu arrived in New York anonymously to play the US Open qualy and just over two weeks later, she left with the American Grand Slam trophy under her arm and as the new great star of the circuit. female. That title of hers catapulted her to fame and changed her life, but it also loaded her with enormous expectations and pressure. And the British, then barely 18 years old, did not know how to handle this new reality. In the following years, she changed her coach many times, she suffered from one injury after another and failed to make the bright future that was predicted for her after her time at Flushing Meadows a reality. And a few days ago, she confessed: “Sometimes I think she wishes she had never won the US Open.”
“Since then I had many setbacks, one after another. I’m resilient, my tolerance is high, but it’s not easy. When I lost a match I got depressed. I was under a lot of pressure. I’m very young and I keep learning and making mistakes. It’s much tougher when you make mistakes in front of everyone and everyone has something to say about it. The tour is completely brutal,” Raducanu said in an interview with the Sunday Times.
Away from the courts for a few months -she played her last game in April and will miss the rest of the season, after having surgery on both wrists and her left ankle in mid-May-, the British reflected in that talk about how difficult they were the last few seasons and how much he suffered with his mental health.
“I was very naive when I won the US Open. Then I realized that the circuit is not a nice and safe space,” said Raducanu. Photo EFE/ John G. Mabanglo
“When I won the US Open I was very naive. In the last two years I realized that the circuit and all its surroundings is not a very pleasant and safe space. You have to be on your guard because there are many ‘sharks’ out there. It has It has been difficult to navigate it. I burned myself several times. And I had to mature suddenly, but I learned that the best thing is to keep your circle as small as possible”, he commented.
In the 2021 edition of the North American Grand Slam, Raducanu started in the qualy and won ten matches in 18 days without losing a set (and giving up just 50 games) to become the first player to emerge from the qualy to be crowned in a tournament of that category. in the Open Era. Her victory in the final 6-4, 6-3 against Canadian Leylah Fernandez, another unexpected finalist (73rd in the ranking and 19 years old), allowed her to jump from 150th to 23rd place in the WTA rankings .
That title was the first of his career. And the only one, at least for now. Because after that contest, Raducanu never even played a final on the major circuit of women’s tennis again or surpassed the second round of a Grand Slam. And although she reached the 10th step of her ranking in July last year, the lack of continuity and regularity, complicated by her injuries, did not let her stay. Today she is 130th and a few weeks ago she made the decision to take a break to give her body and her head time to heal, after having pushed them to the limit.
Raducanu underwent surgery on his left wrists and ankle in May. “I was struggling with the physical pain, but the mental part was also very difficult for me,” he said. Photo Twitter @EmmaRaducanu
“The pain in my wrists intensified last summer, after Wimbledon. I started with a new coach and I was very motivated. We trained too much, many repetitions, and I kept going even with pain because I didn’t want to be considered weak. I was fighting the physical pain, but the mental part was also very difficult for me. I always want to offer the best version of myself, or at least try, but I knew I couldn’t,” she reflected.
And he closed: “My self-esteem is very connected to my achievements. If I lost a game I would get very depressed, I would spend a day ‘in mourning’, literally looking at the wall. I feel things with a lot of passion and intensity. I was under a lot of pressure to perform well. People had no idea what was going on and I had to maintain that appearance, keep everything inside. It was very hard.”
