"The expectations of her repeating it were extremely unrealistic" - Tursunov gets candid on coaching Raducanu during 2022 US Open

Dmitry Tursunov recently claimed that Emma Raducanu has no airs about herself or her achievements on tour and that the Brit is an incredibly grounded and hard-working individual.

Tursunov coached Raducanu for a brief trial period during the US Open summer this year (around two months). But the two did not extend their relationship after failing to agree on terms.

In a recent interview, Tursunov elaborated on Raducanu's personality, highlighting how the 20-year-old did not let the pressure of being a defending champion at the US Open get the better of her.

"Honestly, I did not see or feel that there were lots of outside things going on. From the time that we started, Emma just really had her nose to the ground. She was very hard working and did not see her skip a lot of things," revealed Tursunov. "There was no aura of diva or superstar about her and I think she has been managing that part very well. I was super impressed with her and couldn’t be happier with the way she is as a professional athlete."

Admitting that he is not an expert when it comes to knowing what it takes to defend a Grand Slam, Tursunov argued that people were unrealistic in their expectations of wanting Raducanu to defend her US Open title. He explained that he never doubted her abilities but rather her lack of consistency.

"I have never won a Slam so I don’t know what it’s like to defend a Grand Slam," he admitted. "So I think she has done quite well in that sense. Honestly, the expectations of her repeating it were extremely unrealistic and anyone who understands anything about tennis would agree to that. It's not because she doesn't have the abilities. She has the ability but the game needs to be just improved to have that consistency to play at the high level."

The former World No. 20 revealed that Raducanu, too, was "very realistic" in terms of her shortcomings and what she needed to do in order to improve. The Russian insisted that the Brit has the desire and hunger needed to scale greater heights.

"I think she was also very realistic, she understood that she's got sort of a long way to improve and climb. And I think she was absolutely ready for it and hungry to improve. I can't get into her mind. I can't speak for her. But that's the impression that I was getting," the Russian said. "From my perspective, there's only positive things that I can say about her, like, just the way she handled it, how professional she is for her age. I wish I was like that when I played."