"There’s obviously some misguidance there": Kim Clijsters blames Emma Raducanu's bad company for recent slump in form

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."