The commuters rat-racing their way into central London this autumn might be surprised to learn that they may well have shared a train with Emma Raducanu.
While most players have spent the tennis off-season in luxurious resorts – the Maldives is de rigeur this year – the British No1 has been enjoying that rarest of elixirs for a tennis player – time at home.
‘This off-season has been so nice,’ says Raducanu at the National Tennis Centre, where she has been commencing her pre-season training. ‘I was toying with the idea of going on holiday but I came back home and I was like, I’m not leaving. I’ve barely been in the UK this year because I’ve been competing so much; spending quality time with my parents has been so nice.
‘I have loved being in Bromley. It reminds me of when I was a kid – same bedroom, same everything.
‘I’ve been commuting on the train at rush hour every day which has been an experience. It’s like my switch-off. As soon as I get on the South Western to Waterloo I’m just like, my day is done now.’
Perhaps the most famous female athlete in the country, is Raducanu not recognised constantly? ‘Sometimes, but you know what’s funny – in rush hour, people are so locked-in into their worlds, so zoned out, they’re not really paying attention,’ says Raducanu. ‘It’s crazy, the haste in which everyone’s walking: you have to get the elbows out just to get through.’
Emma Raducanu says she is ‘over’ her terrifying stalker ordeal and has ‘loved’ life recently
The tennis golden girl says she is often not even recognised while on the tube in London
She has been some rare time away from the court in London during the off-season
It sounds like an injury waiting to happen for a 23-year-old woman who has had more than her fair share. A pain of a different kind used to trouble her when she was out in public – a crick in her neck from walking with a permanently bowed head, face masked by the peak of a cap, keeping at bay the world which has always been hungry for a piece of her.
But Raducanu is more at peace with her fame and we, perhaps, are more at peace with her. The heaven-sent tennis prodigy who won the US Open in 2021 and has been a lightning rod for criticism ever since is now just part of our sporting furniture.
‘My neck doesn’t hurt as much,’ says Raducanu. ‘I’m not looking down as much. I’m like, OK, what if they see me on the tube? It’s not a bad thing. If people recognise me and want to come up to me, that’s great. I don’t feel like I’m hiding any more.’
It is heartening to hear Raducanu express these feelings at the end of a year which began with a horrendous stalking ordeal, as a ‘fixated’ fan trailed her across the Middle East. ‘Honestly, I have gotten over it,’ says Raducanu of the stalking episode.
After that traumatic start in the Gulf, this season has been perhaps the most ordinary in an extraordinary career: no standout successes but no disasters either; no big injuries. Instead there has been steady progress and that is exactly what was required. Raducanu played 50 matches across 21 events – by both metrics the busiest season of her career – and rose 32 spots to 29th in the world rankings, meaning she can expect to be seeded at the Australian Open for the first time since 2022.
She has also, via an admittedly scenic route, found herself an excellent coach in Francis Roig, who spent 18 years on team Rafael Nadal. On Sunday, Raducanu headed off to Barcelona for pre-season training at the Catalan’s academy.
‘Overall I have to be positive about the season,’ says Raducanu. ‘It’s my first year of competing and playing that much so I’m proud of it. I am becoming more robust. I had never really put myself out there week to week, I would always have longer breaks. I was trying to work out what worked for me and this year was another iteration of that.’
If Raducanu is still trying to find out her sweet spot of playing vs training vs resting, she is also searching for her identity as a tennis player. She blitzed the 2021 US Open with free-swinging aggression but has won plenty of matches since as an all-court operator and athletic defender. She has the skill to adapt to her opponent’s gamestyle but that is not always a strength; under Roig she is working on imposing her own will on matches.
The 23-year-old is learning Spanish, French, and Mandarin and doing ‘homework’ on them
She says coach Francisco Roig has been helping to ‘build a better Emma Raducanu’
‘Francis wants me to focus on building a better Emma Raducanu,’ she says. ‘I’ve always been more tactical, trying to exploit their weaknesses and be crafty. And it works but the ideal is you don’t have to think too much about the other player: you can just go and execute your game.
‘In terms of my weapons, I don’t necessarily have something that can blow someone off the court so I have to use my skill and my brain more.’
Raducanu has been using her brain more off the court, too. She realised this year that she is at her best – and happiest – when combining tennis with studying, as she did as a child. Raducanu did an art history course this year and is now learning three languages at once: Spanish, French and Mandarin.
‘I’ll start mixing languages and don’t even know what I’m saying!’ she says.
‘It’s been great for me to put my mind to something else, to feed my brain – I’m prone to overthinking, my brain will just keep going if I don’t give it something to think about.
‘Having these subjects I’m studying, it does remind me of when I was younger and I was juggling two things (tennis and school). I’m putting deadlines on myself to achieve certain things and having homework to do. It’s all very nostalgic, but in a good way.’
As she harks back towards her childhood, Raducanu will be in London on Christmas Day for the first time since Covid. Her usual pre-Australian Open routine is to spend Christmas with a friend in Auckland before playing the tournament there, but her decision to instead play in the national team United Cup event with Jack Draper gives her more flexibility.
‘I’ve learned a lot about myself this year,’ says Raducanu in conclusion. ‘The start of the year was not very smooth. I went through some very difficult times on and off the court but it really taught me the strength that I have to pull myself out of it. Also what I need to do to avoid falling back in again.
‘A lot of it is spending time studying, nurturing my brain. That’s something I need. So I feel very content. I’m pleased with the progress I’m making in myself as a person, maturing. I’m pleased and grateful for the great friends I have – and my parents, too.’
