By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Tuesday October 5, 2021
Emma Raducanu will take the court for the first time since her US Open triumph at Indian Wells, and she plans to approach the game with the same attitude.
Photo Source: Getty
The tried-and-true axiom that applies to so many things in this world also, it seems, applies to Great Britain’s Emma Raducanu this week at Indian Wells, where she will make her BNP Paribas Open debut.
It if isn’t broken, don’t fix it.
Calm and composed, Raducanu spoke to the media via Zoom on Tuesday and impressively stated that she was relatively nonplussed by her whirlwind three weeks that saw her win the US Open and appear at the Met Gala and a James Bond movie premier.
That's not to say she hasn't enjoyed herself. Quite the contrary, but Raducanu has a keen sense of how to get hyped without getting too high.
"I'd say it's been a very cool three weeks," she said. "I got to experience some great things that I probably never would have got to do before, but yes, after that I just went straight back to training and focusing on this competition and the upcoming ones that I have lined up."
Raducanu, still without a full-time coach for the time being, will be guided in part by Jeremy Bates of the LTA this week. She says she’s in no rush to find the right coach and simply needs time to find someone who she “gets along with” and who can “push" her.
For now, the 18-year-old she says she’ll rely on her experience, confidence, and tennis IQ to get by.
"At the moment I'm confident," she said. "Even though I'm quite young I've got a lot of experience banked, and at the end of the day you are out there on your own and you have to be your own coach on the court. I'm pretty comfortable. I'm looking for the general things in a coach, really, someone that you get along with well, and someone who can push you."
Watching the rising star take questions it becomes immediately apparent that she has the perfect mindset to deal with her new, intense reality. Many players have extreme difficulty coming down from Cloud 9 after winning their first major title – especially teenagers – but Raducanu appears preternaturally gifted at deflecting pressure and expectations.
She calmly mentions that she doesn’t want to overthink her rapid rise to stardom or what may come after. She simply wants to continue doing what has already worked for her: putting her head down and focusing on improving as a tennis player.
Asked if she had worked on our sought advice about how to deal with a phase of a career that has proven difficult for so many players, she said the following:
"I haven't done anything personally, yet," she said. "I think that if the time comes then it does, but I think that I don't really want to change anything. What got me to this point is not thinking anything differently, so if I just put additional thoughts in my head then that would just create a problem I think, so I'm just going to keep going about my business and staying the same."
Essentially, the blinders are on and Raducanu is approaching her tennis with a healthy does of humility. She’s just a young player eager to prove herself.
Getting swept up in the media maelstrom and believing in the hype that she’s created for herself is something she’d prefer to leave to the media. Of course, it’s enjoyable to get A-list invites and rub elbows with Daniel Craig, but at the end of the day Raducanu seems to find it easy to return to her own personal ground zero, the place where she has a career that is very much a work in progress.
There is work to be done and there is time to do it. So let’s just get on with it.
Asked what the highlight of her last three weeks has been, Raducanu’s answer may have been the most telling.
"The highlight for me still, and always will be, the night that I won and afterwards, after the match, when we went back to the hotel, and it was just me and the team, having a really nice meal, chatting and reflecting on the past three weeks, for me that's always going to be the highlight, even though all of the invitations were very cool, I think that's what is going to stick in my mind."