June 19, 2023 
By India Today Sports Desk: 2021 US Open winner Emma Raducanu has said that sometimes she wishes that she’d never won her maiden Grand Slam title, while reflecting on the mental pressure around the game.
Speaking to The Sunday Times, Raducanu said she was very naïve when she won the 2021 US Open, insisting that there are a lot of sharks out there. Raducanu, aged 18 then, became the first British woman to win the tournament since Virginia Wade in 1968.
“When I won I was extremely naïve. What I have realised in the past two years, the tour and everything that comes with it, it’s not a very nice, trusting and safe space. You have to be on guard because there are a lot of sharks out there,” said Raducanu.
She went on to say that people saw her as a piggy bank, insisting that she has been burnt a few times and has learnt to keep her circle small. The Brit star has struggled with form and fitness off late and has dropped to the ranking of world number 128.
“I think people in the industry, especially with me because I was 19, now 20, they see me as a piggy bank. It has been difficult to navigate. I have been burnt a few times. I have learnt, keep your circle as small as possible,” Raducanu added.
The 20-year-old said sometimes she wishes that she had not won the 2021 US Open title but focuses on the feeling she had while lifting the trophy at Flushing Meadows. Raducanu is currently without a coach after parting ways with Sebastian Sachs earlier this month.
“I am resilient, my tolerance is high, but it’s not easy. And sometimes I think to myself I wish I’d never won the US Open, I wish that didn’t happen. Then I am like, remember that feeling, remember that promise, because it was completely pure,” said Raducanu.
Raducanu missed this year's French Open and will be absent from Wimbledon too while she recovers from surgery on her wrists and ankle.
July 20, 2024 
