Judy Murray questions Emma Raducanu’s camp if they are accepting brand deals at the cost of the player’s fitness in light of constant injuries
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Emma Raducanu and Judy Murray
World No. 11 Emma Raducanu is on the sidelines yet again after she suffered an injury in her grass-court debut in Nottingham retiring after just 7 games played against Viktorija Golubic who made her way to the semi-finals of the tournament. This was Emma’s third injury mid-match retirement and it is safe to say that the Brit has suffered massively in her first full season on the Tour.
Emma is currently without a head coach in her team and has received criticism for it as the teenager is not yet well experienced to manage without a head coach. Her rising popularity has also made her off-court life quite busy with a lot of brand work which surely does come in between her resting and recovering time. Speaking on this, tennis coach and mother of superstars Jamie and Andy Murray, Judy Murray in her column for The Telegraph, issues some advice to the teenager.
“I’ve seen it before” Judy Murray on Emma Raducanu’s rising popularity
Having been the architect of her sons Jamie and Andy’s careers, Judy is well aware of the challenges a player faces with training, hectic Tour schedules, brand work, recovery and other things. With Emma showing she does have the talent, Judy in her column shed light on how off-court activities do indeed have an effect on the players.
“Raducanu’s team will be mindful of all the savvy sponsorship deals and marketing campaigns she has astutely tapped into over the past eight months. They will no doubt bring her huge financial rewards, but at what cost to her body? I say this because as with most young players, it shouldn’t be a case of patching them up and preparing them for the next high-profile event just because a sponsor or a federation wants to ensure their branding is visible.
“I’ve seen it before – a sponsor might have a campaign to activate at the next slam, so they put pressure on the agent, who puts pressure on the coach, who in turn pressurises the fitness trainer to make sure the player is ready. But is that keeping the athlete’s best interests at heart?. When athletes are so young, you can’t expect them to make those big decisions.
“They can get sucked into the short-term picture and of course, it can be tempting to play in all these lucrative events. What’s more, they have to verbalise everything to a very much older team who are actually reliant on them for their salaries. That’s a really tough situation to be in,” wrote Judy in her column.
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Sarthak Shitole
(3462 Articles Published)