“Emma Raducanu knows what she’s doing,” says Barbara Schett after Eddie Jones ‘harsh comments’ about the Brit
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British teenage tennis player, Emma Raducanu broke into the tennis scene at Wimbledon this year, where she reached the fourth round. Her big moments of glory came in New York, when she became the first qualifier to win a grand slam, lifting the US Open trophy without dropping a set!
However since her grand slam win, which was also her maiden WTA title, Raducanu has won 2 and lost 3 matches which became a reason to criticize the US Open winner for England’s rugby coach, Eddie Jones stating that Raducanu has fallen prey to the distractions that came with her moments of glory in New York.
The Raducanu and Jones drama
Earlier this week, England’s rugby coach Eddie Jones made headlines when he advised upcoming rugby player Marcus Smith to focus on his game. What irked people was that he used the teenage Raducanu to make his point. He said –
“The big thing for good young players is distractions. The distractions could be the exposure they get in the media, the praise they get, the criticism they get. There can be groups of agents who see this guy as the next big thing. There’s a reason why the girl who won the U.S. Open hasn’t done so well afterward.
What have you seen her on? The front page of Vogue, the front page of Harper’s Bazaar, whatever it is, wearing Christian Dior clothes. He is grounded, but they all start off grounded. No one starts with their feet off the ground or they don’t get in the team, or they don’t win a U.S. Open. But there’s this flood of distractions that comes in that makes you ungrounded”.
Emma Raducanu responded to Jones comments saying – “I don’t really know what this is about, I think that many people are going to have opinions of me and what I’m doing”. She further added – “I just know I’m staying focused with a small circle around me. I have my parents, who would 100 percent let me know if I was getting swayed. I am very zoned in”.
Raducanu’s incredible achievement at the Flushing Meadows was followed by a lot of attention from the media as well as the entertainment and fashion industry; from being invited to the Met Gala and movie premieres to being featured on the cover of Vogue. Jones faced a lot of backlash for his comments, being called sexist and ridiculous.
“It’s always easy for people to make comments about somebody’s life”, Schett said in defense of Raducanu
Barbara Schett, former Austrian tennis player who is now a tournament ambassador at the WTA Linz, has come to the defense of Britain’s Emma Raducanu after England rugby coach Eddie Jones said there’s a reason she had struggled since winning the US Open, citing off-court distractions.
The Eurosport TV presenter, Schett has defended the rising star and urged people to give her time and not make harsh comments without enough knowledge about the person or the sport.
“It’s always easy for people to make comments about somebody’s life, and the England rugby coach probably doesn’t know tennis very well,” .”Yes, she hasn’t won a lot of matches after winning the US Open, but I don’t necessarily think it is because she is wearing Dior dresses, having a photoshoot or going to the James Bond premiere.“
“She is trying to stay in the moment, and I think her main goal is to be a tennis player. But you just have to give her a bit of time. As every Grand Slam winner says, the first Grand Slam changes your life.“
“I think she knows exactly what she is doing. It is very tricky, we all know that, but I’m sure she has a good team around her now, with the agent and the parents, so she is not getting too carried away.”But the hardest part is knowing how to deal with the expectations and with the pressure”, Schett told Eurosport.
Apart from appearing at WTA Linz, where Raducanu lost to Chinese, Xinyu Wang for an early exit from the tournament, Raducanu has also confirmed the appointment of Torben Beltz as her new coach on tour after he parted ways with Angelique Kerber.
The German coach, Beltz comes with a fair bit of experience after sharing a successful partnership with Angelique Kerber before. Raducanu can defintely use this experience in order to bring in some positive changes from here on.
The Australian Open will begin at the start of 2022 and it is going to be quite a tricky experience for Raducanu who has never played at the Opening Major in Melbourne. There is going to be a lot of attention as well as pressure on the Raducanu which will make it interesting to see how the US Open champion deals with all that expectation on her shoulders.
Also Read: “I am very zoned in” Emma Raducanu responds to Eddie Jones’ comments about distraction
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Nihar Khopkar
(191 Articles Published)