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‘We make a great living’: Emma Raducanu on why she won’t moan about the tennis calendar
The British No 1 on the home comforts of Bromley, the joys of commuting and being ‘creeped out’ by paparazzi when going to watch rugby
www.theguardian.com
Emma Raducanu has garnered many endorsement deals in her nascent career, but there is perhaps one elusive sponsorship that would be most pleasing to the British No 1 women’s tennis player: ambassador of the London borough of Bromley.
During a roundtable discussion with tennis journalists at the end of a gruelling yet satisfying season, Raducanu is merely attempting to describe a quiet off-season spent in her family home when she finds herself delivering a sales pitch about the benefits of living in Bromley. “I’m just so settled,” she says. “I’ve barely been in the UK this year because I’ve been competing so much, but I think just spending really good quality time with my parents has been so nice. I have loved just being in Bromley. It just reminds me of when I was a younger kid and it’s the same bedroom, same everything.
“Bromley has some amazing speciality coffee shops now that didn’t exist a few years ago. And I’ve been trying every new spot. It’s been really nice, and obviously so much greenery, and it’s been fun actually. I’ve been commuting on the train. So I’ve been part of rush hour every day, which has also been an experience. But it’s like my switch off. As soon as I get on the South Western to Waterloo, I’m just like: ‘My day is done now.’”
The inner peace and contentment that Raducanu speaks of has been hard‑earned at the end of a positive if unspectacular season when she took several steps forward. The 23‑year‑old rose from outside the top 60 to No 29 in 2025, her highest ranking since 2022. She played more frequently than ever this year with largely consistent results.
She has also taken steps to find stability within her team, a glaring issue since the start of her career. Raducanu appears to have found a fruitful coaching partnership with the Spaniard Francisco Roig, previously a longtime member of Rafael Nadal’s coaching team, and she will start the 2026 season with a new combined physiotherapist and strength and conditioning coach in Emma Stewart, an experienced professional who has worked in tennis and was most recently part of British Rowing’s Olympic medal‑winning setup.
Emma Raducanu beat former champion Marketa Vondrousova at Wimbledon this year and reached the third round, where she lost to Aryna Sabalenka. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian
In recent weeks, however, the goal has been to not think about tennis. After prematurely ending her season in Asia due to illness, Raducanu devoted significant time to improving her Chinese language skills during her time visiting family in her mother’s country of birth, her Spanish at the urging of Roig, and her French. “I was just like: ‘I’m trying to do everything,’” she says, smiling. “I really need rest days from my rest days. It’s actually quite consuming.”
As the 2021 US Open champion describes her language learning odyssey, a member of her team interjects to note that he now receives texts from her in French, even though he does not speak the language. “It’s funny, because then I’ll just start mixing languages,” Raducanu says. “I’m saying a sentence with three different languages, and I just don’t even know what I’m saying. But I think it’s been great for me to put my mind to something else and to be occupied and feed my brain. It’s the best thing I can do for myself. And I feel like I’m just in a pretty content place, just trying to become a better version off the court.”
Emma Raducanu is about to embark on pre-season training with Francisco Roig. Photograph: Robert Prange/Getty Images
Alongside some positive results, there have been ample difficult moments in 2025. Most notably, Raducanu’s encounters with a fixated individual in February drew global headlines. Those incidents naturally hurt her confidence, with the Briton previously stating that her neck would hurt from looking down in public to avoid people recognising her. “Now I don’t. My neck doesn’t hurt as much. I’m not looking down as much. Better posture,” she says, laughing. “But I’m like: ‘OK, what? Are they going to see me on the tube?’ It’s not a bad thing.”
The comfort with which Raducanu navigated the city during the off-season has also shown her that she has put the incident behind her. “Honestly, I have gotten over it,” she says. “What did creep me out was I saw a photo of myself in London, and I didn’t see the paps [paparazzi]. I was with my two best friends. This happened last week, and it was some tabloid article saying I had a new boyfriend or whatever. But it’s literally my best friend’s brother. I was like: ‘Come on, guys. Come on. Be better. This is not [true].’ I was with my best friend’s brother, and we were going to the rugby. And of course, they cropped my best friend out. It was just me and this guy, and I just didn’t see the paps. So that’s obviously creepy. You know, when you’re like: ‘I didn’t see them. How did they take this photo?’ But other than that, I feel good because someone’s always watching my back.”
Off the court, 2025 has been a contentious and controversial year in tennis. The most recent discourse has focused on the length of the season, with various players being critical of the demanding season. Raducanu, however, offers a different perspective to the likes of Iga Swiatek, Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and her fellow British No 1, Jack Draper.
“I think that’s a challenge,” she says. “I don’t necessarily think it’s something to complain about because it’s what we are given. And we are making a great living as well. I mean it’s not all glamorous. There are definitely times when it’s very difficult and we are flagging mentally, physically, everything hurts. But at the same time what are we going to do about it? I am sure there are certain people who go to work and their bosses make them do something, but they have to do it, it’s their job. If we put up a front that isn’t complaining, I think that is a better example to the people watching, trying to get into tennis, the younger people. If they see all the top players moaning about the calendar, I don’t think that’s necessarily inspiring to look up to.”
Emma Raducanu and Jack Draper will be playing doubles together in the United Cup in January. Photograph: John Walton/PA
The next time Raducanu competes, she will be playing alongside her old friend Draper in the United Cup, the mixed-gender international team event that kicks off the season in Australia. Before then, an intense pre‑season block begins this week with Roig in Barcelona with the goal to build on the solid foundations established in 2025, to improve the quality of her shotmaking and begin to close the considerable gap between herself and the very best players in the world.
“I think I went through some very difficult times on and off the court at the start of the year,” she says. “But I think it really taught me, like the strength that I have to pull myself out of it. Also what I need to do to avoid falling back in again. A lot of it is spending time studying, spending time learning, spending time nurturing my brain and just constantly that’s something I need. Learning about myself has been a great thing. So I feel very content.”
