"It's very difficult to really open": Emma Raducanu not interested in 'friendship' on tour ahead of DC Open clash with Naomi Osaka

Britain’s Emma Raducanu has spoken about having friends in the tennis world. In the past, there has been considerable animosity between players competing simultaneously. That, however, changed over the last two decades, especially after the camaraderie shown by the likes of two former world number ones, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, despite their intense competition at the highest level.

In recent years, women’s tennis players have spoken about friendships with players they face on the court. Spain’s Paula Badosa and world number one Aryna Sabalenka have shared pictures of spending time together and talking about their friendship on more than one occasion. Despite all of that, Raducanu has decided to take a different approach to forming friendships on the tour.

Raducanu is currently participating in the DC Open, competing in various categories. In the doubles category, Raducanu and her partner Elena Rybakina cemented a spot in the quarterfinal after beating the pair of Tereza Mihalikova and Olivia Nicholls with a score of 2-6, 7-6, 11-9. They will face the pair of Giuliana Olmos and Aldila Sutjiadi in the last-eight clash on Thursday.

In the singles category, Raducanu cemented her spot in the round of 16, beating Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk in straight sets with a score of 7-6, 6-4. Raducanu will face the former world number one Naomi Osaka in the second round. Osaka defeated Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva in straight sets with a score of 6-2, 7-5. This will be the first-ever meeting between the two players in professional tennis.

Speaking ahead of her clash against the four-time Grand Slam winner, Raducanu discussed having friends on the tour. The former US Open winner confirmed that she has never spoken to Osaka and has no intention to do so in the near future. Raducanu was of the opinion that she is not in favour of having too many friends on the tour as facing those players makes it difficult for her.

“I think when we're on the tour, it's very difficult to really open up with other players that you're competing against. I think for me, I have a few friends on the tour, but it does add another dimension when you play them,” she said. “I have really good friends at home that I can trust and speak to. For me, I just find it harder to compete against a person I'm friends with.”

Raducanu then spoke at length of similarities between the two players. Raducanu spoke about the similarities between the two players and believes that it's nice to play against someone who has gone through a similar journey.

“When I won my US Open, I came from school, I was no one, I was 200 in the world, and Naomi had already won Indian Wells,” said Raducanu. “She was already a known figure on the tour, and people kind of expected, okay, like, she's going to start doing well and start winning Slams. Whereas I think when I won, it was completely out of nowhere. It means that I didn't quite build the foundations she had when she won her Grand Slams, which I think is why she was able to repeat and win another three, back-to-back US Open and Australia. I think she was an established pro tour player, whereas I didn't necessarily feel that way. It's probably why I had a lot more dips afterwards. It's good to see the similarities now. I think we have both kind of started doing better and started enjoying the process more and enjoying developing. I think it's nice that after having such big highs and then some lows to both be working towards, you know, going up again.”