It sometimes feels as though ever since the 2021 US Open, Emma Raducanu has been trying to recapture the spirit of that schoolgirl who swept to the title. Perhaps it should come as no surprise, then, that the 22-year-old version of that kid has a yearning to dust off her textbooks.
‘I’m going to start studying more,’ says Raducanu, in a joint interview with Mail Sport and the Guardian at the Italian Open. ‘I think I need that. I’ve missed it for the last few years. I need something to stimulate and engage my brain so my entire life isn’t just tennis.’
Will this be formal study? ‘I haven’t decided yet. I think so. Whether I take my third A level, whether I go into a degree, I feel like I need some sort of pressure and adrenaline in that area of my life.
‘Growing up, I always had tennis as an escape from studying and studying as an escape from tennis. So it wasn’t just my entire life, my entire personality dependent on this one thing.
‘I loved studying and I still do. I love those moments on my own, quiet reading in the library, figuring things out myself.
‘In this life, where it’s so busy and there’s so many people around, as you see (she gestures around the buzzing terrace of the Foro Italico) it’s nice to have that little retreat.
Amid the bustle of elite tennis, Emma Raducanu is looking for stimulation away from the court
The Briton has enjoyed a resurgence of sorts this year, most recently with a strong run in Miami
Raducanu is newly working with Andy Murray’s former coach Mark Petchey – although the relationship is being taken one step at a time
‘Solving problems, getting a certain grade on an exam… your self esteem isn’t just reliant on a win or a loss.’
What would that third A Level be (to go with maths and economics)? Raducanu considers. ‘English, politics or physics,’ she says.
The subject arose from a question about Carlos Alcaraz’s new documentary. The Spaniard said his greatest fear is for tennis to become an obligation – has the sport ever felt like that for Raducanu since her title in New York?
‘Yeah, I would say there have been times I felt that,’ she says. ‘The last few years of my career have been a big, big learning curve.
‘I don’t have all the answers now but I feel like I’m starting fresh. I want to do things in a different way. I’m working to see what I can do to bridge the gap between where I am now and the top of the game.
‘I’m working on a few things, in my game and off the court, setting up my life in different ways.’
It is no wonder Raducanu, a naturally curious and introspective soul, has been thinking things over recently.
A lot has happened this year. A back spasm which ruined her pre-season. The departure of trusted coach Nick Cavaday for health reasons. The terror of being stalked across four countries. A coaching trial with Vlado Platenik which ended after just two weeks.
The ex-British No1’s former coach Nick Cavaday was forced to step back for health reasons
In Petchey, Raducanu is once again working with someone she has known since childhood
The upshot of that abrupt parting from Platenik in Miami was an on-the-hoof partnership with Mark Petchey.
What began as a stop-gap has become a more permanent, if informal, arrangement, and Raducanu talks for the first time about how that alliance came about.
‘It happened completely by chance,’ she says. ‘It was almost fate. I was working with Vlado and I just knew it had to come to an end. Mark was already in Miami, commentating, and I bumped into him in one of the corridors. He’s someone that I trust so we were just talking. It was a bit of both: it was me being scared to ask, can you help? And it was him not wanting to push himself.’
Once again, Raducanu has reverted to someone who has known her before her Grand Slam triumph. Also in Rome is Jane O’Donoghue, her childhood coach turned financier. Raducanu reveals that O’Donoghue has taken a couple of months off her job in the city to be here for the clay court swing and into the grass. She has previously only done a week here and there.
Raducanu knows her own mind and is fiercely loyal to those who knew her before fame and fortune.
‘I am very independent and that definitely comes from my mum,’ she says. ‘She’s the strongest person I know, has gone through so much in life and she’s always taught me to rely on people as little as possible.
‘But sometimes you do need to lean on people. I have become less afraid to do that.
‘It takes a lot for me to open up. I haven’t truly opened up to many people in my life.
Raducanu has stressed that before her historic US Open run in 2021 she was very sheltered
The 22-year-old is guarded and by her own admission struggles to open up to new people
‘Once I let someone in, I let them in fully, and I care for them so much. I have been burned a few times, a few people who I’ve really trusted have surprised me.
‘It’s very difficult for me to trust new people. I find myself gravitating towards those people I’ve known before the US Open. My circle is smaller than ever.
‘Up until I won the US Open, I was so sheltered. Up to 18, I was just with my parents. It was like nothing could touch me. And then all of a sudden everyone came and I got burned quite a lot of times, whether that’s professionally or personally. Now I’m very Fort Knox with who I let in.’
Raducanu’s path of self discovery continues as she grows up under the beam of a most intent spotlight. She begins her Italian Open campaign on Wednesday against a qualifier.
