‘It is hard to be a superstar in England’ Chris Evert backs Emma Raducanu as she slams the English media for not being supportive
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Emma Raducanu and Chris Evert
Emma Raducanu rose to fame when she won the US Open title and became the first qualifier ever to win a Grand Slam. The young talented tennis star was already hyped a lot by the English media as they felt that they have the next big star rising after someone of Andy Murray‘s stature from the United Kingdom.
But things went downhill for Raducanu as he struggled with life in the limelight. Every move of her was now put under the scanner as she struggled on and off the court. She failed to replicate similar performances in the following tournaments ever since she won her maiden Grand Slam and has been a major subject of criticism from media, fans and tennis experts all around the world. Therefore tennis legend Christine Evert has backed Raducanu and spoke in support of her. Evert shared how the 20-year-old is handling everything with beauty and poise despite the pressure from external factors being around her.
Recently the youngster shared how her life on social media can be very misleading. She highlights how people mostly assume that she is signing dals with different brands all day rather than focusing on tennis. Whereas, she is sweating it out on the court for 5-6 hours and just when she posts a brand image on social media people start talking again.
“Maybe you just see on the news or on social media me signing this or that deal, and I feel like it’s quite misleading because I’m doing five, six hours a day [of training]. I’m at the club for 12 hours a day,” she said.
“But I throw out one post in the car on the way to practice and all of a sudden it’s ‘I don’t focus on tennis’. I think that it is unfair but it’s something I have learned to deal with and become a bit more insensitive to the outside noise.
“At the end of the day, I feel like my days [with sponsors] are pretty limited. I’m not doing crazy days. I’m doing three, four days every quarter, so it’s really not that much.”
‘Emma Raducanu will work her way up, she has the priority clear in her head,” Chris Evert
However, watching this situation Nick Kyrgios recently came in support of Raducanu as he called out former World No.5 Daniela Hantuchova for criticising the youngster. Now Chris Evert has also backed her as she highlights how tough it is for her to focus on her game with such media intrusion and public pressure.
“To be a superstar in England is like the toughest thing ever for a player,” Evert told Eurosport. “Even tougher than being a superstar in America where there are so many more athletes in other sports or being a superstar in other countries.”
Evert shares how English media camps out at people’s doorstep when they become a superstar and that is absolutely not right according to 18-time Grand Slam winner. She has complete trust in Raducanu’s abilities and shares that the youngster is her priorities sorted.
“I just think with the tabloids in England it’s brutal. I mean basically, they camp out at your doorstep if you’re a superstar and that’s not good. I think Emma is handling everything beautifully.
“I think Emma has tennis as her number one priority and she’s working hard. It’s hard when these financial opportunities come along and they’re just offered to her to turn them down, and I think that’s fine as long as her number one priority is still to improve her game,” Evert added.
The tennis legend shares how it is tough for a youngster to win the US Open and then have a ranking over 100 in the world. She feels Raducanu will have to put in a lot of work and believes that the 19-year-old will be able to get back to where she was.
“It’s hard when you win a Grand Slam and you’re out of the top 100. That’s a tough, tough, tough act to follow and she’s feeling it, but she’s just got to put her nose to the grindstone and deal with it and work her way up, and I think she is doing that.
“She has got a great game, and she has got a great attitude. But it is tough being a superstar in England, and I saw that in the last 50 years I’ve seen that with English players.”
Lastly, she suggests English players to be thick-skinned as she claimed the English media and tabloids are not supportive of their young talents. “The press are just different in England, they are relentless, they build you up and then if you don’t live up to the expectations, they are just not as supportive.
“It’s not all the press there, but the tabloids, you just have to be thick-skinned. She has got to be thick-skinned. But I think she is,” Evert concluded.
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Atrayo Bhattacharya
(193 Articles Published)