Former world number one
Kim Clijsters believes that one of
the reasons for the recent failures of young British tennis star Emma
Raducanu is her bad company. The 21-year-old was once regarded as the next big
thing when she lifted the US Open at the age of just 18 in 2021.
The impressive aspect of that triumph was the fact that Raducanu
started the competition through the qualifying round and even then went on to
win the title after beating Canada’s Leylah Fernandez in the final in straight sets
with a score of 6–4, 6–3.Since then, however, not much has gone right for the former
world number 10 as in eight appearances in a Grand Slam, she has not managed to
qualify for the quarterfinal or beyond.
During that phase, Raducanu has struggled with fitness
concerns as well. Her most recent outing in a mega-event was in New York, where
she was knocked out in the first round of the US Open after losing to former
Australian Open champion America’s Sofia Kenin with a score of 6-1, 3-6, 6-4. Former
world number one Clijsters recently spoke to former men’s world number one Andy
Roddick where she highlighted that one of the reasons for Raducanu’s recent
struggles is probably because of bad company.
"There’s two
things that I think could be the reason… it’s either maybe not having the right
people around you who kind of guide you and say, ‘Okay, this is important to
you like the scheduling, building enough weeks off in between, like training blocks
to improve, to mentally switch off,'" she said. “Or is it her [Emma
Raducanu]? Is there other things going on mentally where she’s kind of just had
it with media, pressure… whatever it is. It’s only those two things that could
be the cause. I don’t know enough about her, I don’t know her personally, I
don’t know her team, I really don’t know much about that whole situation. I’m
sorry but if you have a team of coaches around you or whoever is in charge,
there’s obviously some misguidance there."