James Blake sees comparisons in Raducanu with Sharapova's emergence: "Taking the world by storm like we hadn't seen since Maria"

Miami Open Tournament director James Blakne seems similarities in the way Maria Sharapova and Emma Raducanu took the world by storm as teenagers.

While Raducanu's run was impressive and is something that's never been done before, Sharapova's will forever be iconic. Blake sees similarities because both of them captured the attention of the world seemingly overnight. There was a frenzy following both and Raducanu's is still a major talking point in tennis even though she didn't do anything in tennis for over a year. He said:

“Raducanu is such an incredible story what she did at the US Open, taking the world by storm like we hadn’t seen since Maria Sharapova winning Wimbledon at such a young age and becoming a media phenomenon."

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He added:

"It's been a bit of a struggle since then, but realistically for her age, she’s getting better, and just happened to have one of her greatest performances at one of the biggest events on the calendar. She’s continuing to make progress. We’re happy she’ll be in Miami. With the success she’s had on hard courts, hopefully she’ll feel comfortable here."

Raducanu was awarded a wild card entry into the event.