“I learned to say no” · tennisnet.com

Emma Raducanu would like to fully attack again in 2025. With a new fitness coach. And new priorities.

The tennis year 2024 was not a resounding success for Emma Raducanu. After she was hardly able to play any tournament tennis the previous season due to operations on her wrists and feet, 57th place in the WTA charts is a respectable interim result. Although only number one is recorded in the “Tournament victories” section: the one in 2021 at the US Open, where Raducanu won the final against Leylah Fernandez.

This was followed by coaching changes and the aforementioned physical problems. And many commitments away from the tennis courts. And it is precisely these topics that Emma Raducanu would now like to tackle differently.

Raducanu doesn’t want to disappoint anyone

On the one hand, the 22-year-old Brit has hired Yutaka Nakamura, who has already worked as a fitness coach with Maria Sharapova and Naomi Osaka. Even in the past few months, Raducanu had not been able to complete her full program.

As for the obligations that come with her status as a Grand Slam champion? “I think I’m a lot more structured now,” Raducanu explained at a British Tennis Association event on Monday. “I say to myself: OK, there is this time when I talk about business for an hour. And then I train for the rest of the week. I also think I’ve learned to say no more often. “I used to feel really bad when I disappointed people.” That even went so far that Raducanu went a little extra. Those times are now over – now the full focus is on sport again.