“Don’t expect a lot from her” Pam Shriver makes a brutal analysis of Emma Raducanu’s chances at Wimbledon 2022
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Emma Raducanu
Emma Raducanu‘s performance has gone downhill after the historic US Open 2021 victory. She has been far from her best self and has made just one quarterfinal appearance in her nine tournament appearances. It has been quite a dismal year for Raducanu who has also suffered from a lot of coaching changes in a very short period of time. But, she will hope to right her wrongs at the tournament where she gained first notice on the big stage, Wimbledon.
A wildcard at Wimbledon 2021, Raducanu reached the fourth round before continuing her momentum in the US. This year seeded tenth, Raducanu would be looking to go further, but her recent forms are not a positive indicator. Moreover, she has not played in a grass-court tournament before Wimbledon. She retired from her only grass-court tournament in Nottingham. Former world number 1 in doubles, Pam Shriver talked about the chances of Emma Raducanu this year at the Championships.
Pam Shriver feels Emma Raducanu has very little chance to do well at Wimbledon 2022.
Shriver was very direct with her analysis of Raducanu. She said: “I don’t know why it’s been so complicated to get a coach to help for this next phase of time, but it clearly has been. I don’t expect a lot from Raducanu at Wimbledon. She’s had a lot of injuries, not enough time on the court, and there’s plenty of pressure back at her home slam, the place where she didn’t return to the court to finish her match 12 months ago. Putting all of that together, I’d be surprised if she made a deep run.”
She also said that it was understandable the pressure Raducanu faces, she said: “It doesn’t really surprise me that she’s had her struggles. After my first US Open at only 16-years-old, I reached the final and lost to Chrissie Evert. That was back in the late 70s at the start of the big tennis boom, it was in my home country. There was a lot of attention and I was still an amateur. I didn’t have any commercial obligations and that makes a big difference these days, completely different to what Raducanu is facing right now. It makes you wonder if somebody with experience of that situation, what she might face, might just say, ‘let’s not overload the off-court obligations and partnerships’.”
But she also hoped that Raducanu would perform better than expected for British Tennis. She said: “It would be great if she did for women’s tennis – the game is always in a great place if there’s British interest at this tournament, we’ve seen it before with Henman Hill and Murray Mania. To have that buzz in the women’s game would be great- we haven’t seen it since Virginia Wade and Sue Barker, apart from a couple of deep runs by Jo Konta in 2017 and 2019.”
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Prateek Sinha
(365 Articles Published)