In Defense of Emma Raducanu

RaulRamirez

RaulRamirez

Legend
It seems as if many posters love to take potshots at Emma Raducanu: I truly wonder why.

Yes, she has never matched her magical 2021 US Open run. As we know, she won the main draw as a qualifier, which has never happened before or since. 10 straight matches, while never being extended to a third set or even a breaker. And she handled it all with grace, warmth and class...at only 18 years old.

Of course, she will be hyped afterwards: Beautiful, articulate, poised people who do something unprecedented tend to be. And she has international appeal, is extremely bright and at least somewhat multilingual.

Why all the backlash? Are some posters concerned about her endorsements? Why? That's between her and her sponsors. Were you expecting those opportunities to come your way?

Coaching changes? That's my only critique of her from the outside, but who knows what goes on behind those scenes? Not my concern, either.

Hasn't lived up to the hype? That describes hundreds and thousands of athletes in all sports. Maybe, she'll never even make another slam QF or win any other tourney? Okay, I hope she wins a lot more in her career, and she could. With her game, I think she has to be really on to beat a top player. I like her backhand her ROS, and she moves well...but not say, Coco Gauff well. She doesn't really have a big forehand or a great serve. did you lose $ betting on her -- an 18 to 23-year-old?

So, what's the problem here? I've never heard her brag about how she was going to dominate the tour...not even close to that.
I just get tired of all of the shallow criticisms of someone who seems to handle her platform with enormous positivity and grace. At times, from posters typing from home or their office, who can barely string coherent sentences together.

Me? I enjoy her game, and her interviews, and to all tennis fans, she gave the sport (along with Leylah...but the final really was not close) a great moment at the 2021 US Open, when we all needed that lift. If that's her only really big moment, so be it. That's a lot more than (to my knowledge) any of us have ever achieved in sports.
 
Because a lot of players have to achieve a whole lot more to get these types of endorsements based on the merit of their game. So when someone fizzles out like a big win, people think a) it's an asterisks win with a paved the path to a lucky draw and b) she is continuing to get sponsors because of her looks and appeal. Add to that constant injuries and coaching changes.

These things breed resentment.
 
leodevlin said:
Because a lot of players have to achieve a whole lot more to get these types of endorsements based on the merit of their game. So when someone fizzles out like a big win, people think a) it's an asterisks win with a paved the path to a lucky draw and b) she is continuing to get sponsors because of her looks and appeal. Add to that constant injuries and coaching changes.

These things breed resentment.
Click to expand...
I get it -- so many people are jealous, petty, and resentful. Do you have any refutations (or additional insights) per anything I wrote?
 
RaulRamirez said:
It seems as if many posters love to take potshots at Emma Raducanu: I truly wonder why.
Click to expand...
As far as I can tell, there has been little to no discussion of Raducanu here recently. Did some bored critic post a "Why I do not like Emma Raducanu" thread? No, or at least I didn't see one. But a Raducanu fan did start a discussion about her chances of winning Wimbledon, which provoked the range of responses one might expect whenever risible speculation appears.
 
leodevlin said:
Because a lot of players have to achieve a whole lot more to get these types of endorsements based on the merit of their game. So when someone fizzles out like a big win, people think a) it's an asterisks win with a paved the path to a lucky draw and b) she is continuing to get sponsors because of her looks and appeal. Add to that constant injuries and coaching changes.

These things breed resentment.
Click to expand...

eh, Agassi made more money in endorsements than any player in history before he won a major(Image is Everything!) Capriati made huge endorsements before she even turned pro, probably more than anyone on tour not named Graf circa 1990(I'm old so I remember that time very well - she was on the cover of SI the week she turned pro!). Sharapova, huge endorsements before winning anything. And then there's Kournikova...

Raducanu on the other hand had to actually win a major before making any endorsement $, so I find this explanation for resentment to be sort of odd(again, no way in hell she is making more in endorsements than major less Agassi or Capriati circa 1990 - that was a time when tennis players were household names in the US, the most lucrative market in the world)
 
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JMR said:
As far as I can tell, there has been little to no discussion of Raducanu here recently. Did some bored critic post a "Why I do not like Emma Raducanu" thread? No, or at least I didn't see one. But a Raducanu fan did start a discussion about her chances of winning Wimbledon, which provoked the range of responses one might expect whenever risible speculation appears.
Click to expand...
Yes, but almost invariably when her name is brought into a thread, it's the same old knee-jerk whining among so many. Of course, I probably will not stem that tide, but I just get tired of the same old shish.
 
JMR said:
As far as I can tell, there has been little to no discussion of Raducanu here recently. Did some bored critic post a "Why I do not like Emma Raducanu" thread? No, or at least I didn't see one. But a Raducanu fan did start a discussion about her chances of winning Wimbledon, which provoked the range of responses one might expect whenever risible speculation appears.
Click to expand...
there a ton of threads about her (along with Osaka, the other most hated WTA player on TW). there are more threads on her than most of the current top 10(like who ever talks about Pegula)

A particularly memorable one was when she had a breakdown on court last year when she saw a stalker in the stands. That thread was longer than any women's match thread in TW history before it was deleted. And half the comments were like "see this proves she's mentally weak!" or "what's the proof that he's a stalker?, what a drama queen!" There are a lot of deranged people on here.
 
Moose Malloy said:
eh, Agassi made more money in endorsements than any player in history before he won a major(Image is Everything!) Capriati made huge endorsements before she even turned pro, probably more than anyone on tour not named Graf circa 1990(I'm old so I remember that time very well - she was on the cover of SI the week she turned pro!). Sharapova, huge endorsements before winning anything. And then there's Kournikova...

Raducanu on the other hand had to actually win a major before making any endorsement $, so I find this explanation for resentment to be sort of odd(again, no way in hell she is making more in endorsements than major less Agassi or Capriati circa 1990 - that was a time when tennis players were household names in the US, the most lucrative market in the world)
Click to expand...
The endorsements in the 80s and 90s were probably way less.
 
RaulRamirez said:
I think that incident was 15 months ago. Do you think TTW posters have greatly matured since then?
Click to expand...
Probably not, but you're not saying your OP today was suddenly prompted by a 15-month-old incident, are you?

In any case, I think the stalking debate was less anti-Raducanu per se and more generic TTW misogyny.
 
Dr Raul couldn’t stop gushing about Emma after her USO win. It was embarrassing. Then he dropped her as a fan the moment her ranking dropped. Stone cold Dr Raul.
 
A lot of people just hate on young attractive female players no matter what they do.

With Bouchard it was always non stop comments ‘focus on tennis and win something first before you do all these endorsements’ etc.

Then Raducanu actually does win something, gets all the endorsements, and it’s still wrong somehow.

Never seen these kinds of comments about male players like Dimitrov for example
 
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