“I think we're really lucky to have her”: Emma Raducanu earns applause from Billie Jean King despite tough US Open loss

Former world number one Billie Jean King has praised Emma Raducanu and believes that British tennis is ‘lucky to have her’. The 22-year-old has recently featured in the US Open where she was knocked out after losing in the third round to Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina in straight sets with a score of 6-1, 6-2.

Despite that result, the former world number one King was full of praise for Raducanu. The 81-year-old has recently spoken to Sky Sports, where she praised Raducanu and believes that British tennis is ‘lucky to have her’.

“Raducanu is very articulate,” said King. “She's very good at getting up and speaking, covering a lot of subjects. You can tell she thinks about a lot of things compared to a lot of the players. "I think we're really lucky to have her but she likes it, she likes playing for her country. If I were her, I'd be pretty excited. She's playing very well and the main thing is she's injury-free, her body's healthy again."

King’s words are another proof of how Raducanu has enhanced her image in the tennis world, especially with her performances in the ongoing season. This year, the one-time Grand Slam winner has played 41 matches across different competitions and won 24 of them, suffering 17 defeats in the process.

In all four Grand Slams, Raducanu once again failed to qualify for the quarterfinal in anyone of them. However, the other side of the story is that every one of them, she was knocked out by big-name players. At the Australian and French Open, Raducanu’s journey came to an end as she lost to former world number one Iga Swiatek. At Wimbledon, Raducanu lost to current world number one Aryna Sabalenka whereas now at the US Open, her journey ended after losing to former Wimbledon champion Rybakina. Talking about how difficult it has been for her to play against the best players in the world, Raducanu stated that she feels that big-name players elevate their game to prove a point when they are playing against her.

"When the very top play against me, they have a point to prove that they're at the top, and they're there for a reason," said Raducanu after crashing out of the US Open. “While I'm improving, doing better, gaining maybe some more respect around, the top have definitely raised their game. Every time I've played one, they've kind of shown that. I'll take that as a compliment that they've decided to really lock in against me, but at the same time it does show I have a lot more work to do."

During the same press conference, Raducanu highlighted her future objectives and claimed that she will review her overall performance over the last few months to set future goals. “It's going to be important to just look at the last few months as a whole and the improvements that I'm making, because a match like that can easily kind of get you down if you let it,” said Raducanu. Raducanu was also very full of praise for her new coach, Francisco Roig, whom she hired back in July, and believes that she is going in the right direction while working with him.

"It's only been three weeks, but it's been a pretty successful three weeks in a sense that we've made good improvements," Raducanu said about Roig. "There are certain parts of my game which have gotten better for sure. Today my weaknesses were highlighted, but I think it's only been three weeks, and he can't really work miracles. I know we're doing good work, and I just look forward to continuing that. I'm looking forward to just building day by day. You take a few steps forward, one step back, but overall I'm working and building towards good things. I'm enjoying my tennis for the most part. Tough to enjoy today, but in the big scheme of things I'm working towards playing better and being a better tennis player."