Madrid Masters 2023: Raducanu, a girl and the double face of precociousness in tennis | Sports

Madrid, complex territory in this tennis, offers a fork shortly after starting the tournament. At noon on Wednesday, a girl named Mirra Andreeva melts Leylah Fernández, runner-up at the US Open two seasons ago, and once again shows that the courts do not distinguish between ages and conditions. At 15 years old, the Russian achieves her first victory in a level scenario (6-3 and 6-4) and breaks the shell in a big way. Immediately the bombastic headlines, the hypotheses, the A star has been born… that not too long ago was assigned to Emma Raducanu, the sensation that in…

Madrid, complex territory in this tennis, offers a fork shortly after starting the tournament. At noon on Wednesday, a girl named Mirra Andreeva melts Leylah Fernández, runner-up at the US Open two seasons ago, and once again shows that the courts do not distinguish between ages and conditions. At 15 years old, the Russian achieves her first victory in a level scenario (6-3 and 6-4) and breaks the shell in a big way. Immediately the bombastic headlines, the hypotheses, the A star has been born… that not too long ago Emma Raducanu was assigned, the sensation that in 2021 conquered New York –without giving up any set in 10 games at 18 years old–, precisely by beating Fernández (now 20) in a final that was a I sing to the youth

From there, Raducanu covered himself in gold. England, orphaned of heroes and heroines after the physical decline of Andy Murray, she was rubbing her hands at having (supposedly) found a new icon, in a sport also invented by the English themselves. Her name burst into the magazine with a cyclone Forbes –In 2022, it entered four million dollars more (18.7) than the number one, the Polish Iga Swiatek (14.9)– and the commercial firms pounced on it; miscegenation, freshness, projection; the ideal hook to capture the attention of these new generations who live off Instagram and for this new way of interpreting the present, so marked by the exhibition, the glitter, the products that come and go Today, she is one of them.

On Tuesday, Raducanu resolved the turn of attention to journalists in 58 words; The British woman was elusive when faced with the 16 questions asked and she responded with almost monosyllables and grudgingly, hurt because she considers that the treatment given by the media in her country is not entirely fair.

– What is your physical state this week?

– Bueno.

– The dolls?

– They are fine.

– Have you done something different with them?

– No.

[…]

– You may face Jodie Burrage if she wins. She’s one of your friends, isn’t she?

– Yeah.

– So, would it be nice?

– Yes of course.

– Do you want to say something about Jodie?

– Yes I love it.

– What do you think of the painting here?

– It is what it is.

[…]

“You are not making it easy for us. Are you doing it on purpose?” one of the reporters finally asked her, who accepted another emphatic “no” from the player, who the next morning, just before making her debut in the main draw against Viktoriya Tomova, told the organization of the tournament his decision to leave and not play. The official reason for her, a discomfort in her right hand.

Raducanu is the most obvious case of the maelstrom of these times, of how new talents can reach the top very quickly and then wither at the same speed. The Englishwoman –born in Toronto, of Chinese and Romanian descent, and raised in Bromley (London)– became the tenth best tennis player in the world, but today she is ranked 85th in the WTA and when the Madrid event ends she will disappear from among the top 100. Last year she signed 17 wins and 19 losses, and in this her balance is summarized in 5 and 5, with two falls in the first rounds before her fleeting passage through the Spanish capital. In 18 months, she has changed coaches six times. Last month she announced that after the Australian Open she decided to remove the Whatsapp and Instagram apps from her phone, but the dynamic for her hasn’t changed.

It plummets starkly as Andreeva now blooms, another promising ascension offering the temptation to immediately associate her with stardom: contracts, agents, more and more dollars. I seen it too many times in recent times. Born in 2007, she and she must learn to deal with the pressure and rush from abroad so that everything happens at the speed of light. She and Raducanu, the double perspective of sudden success. Paula Badosa knows it well, junior champion of Roland Garros and who makes her debut this Thursday (around 2:30 p.m., Dazn) against Elisabetta Cocciaretto; another young woman who paid for the vertigo.

From Badosa to Gauff

“My head was inflated and I suffered from depression. I was not prepared to accept everything they told me. It didn’t benefit me. The situation was very big for me because I was very young”, the Spanish told this newspaper in 2020. “I have been living in my own bubble. There are times when you go through stages where you want to focus on yourself. I was satisfied with my life without networks, so I decided to continue like this. I have learned that no matter what you do, good or bad, people are going to come and attack you without distinction ”, lamented Raducanu in a statement made last month, when he was competing in Indian Wells (California).

His departure from the Caja Mágica coincided with the honk in the elite of Andreeva, three in the junior world and who with his victory joined Cici Bellis (Miami 2015) and Coco Gauff (Miami 2019) as the youngest to win a match in a WTA 1000, the second category of tournaments after the Grand Slams. Australian Open finalist in January [en su franja de edad], has been collecting notable results and this year has signed 14 wins, for no defeat; she is the 194th in the world list, on Saturday she will turn 16 and today she will face Beatriz Haddad-Maia, a decade older than her.

“I can compare my game with that of Ons Jabeur [tunecina, finalista de Wimbledon y el US Open]; I change rhythms, I look for effects and I do a lot of drop shots; my backhand is my best weapon”, describes the Russian, the last flash in the women’s circuit; from now on, she is followed by the demanding scrutinizing eyes of professionalism and the audience. From now on, test.

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