Raducanu: Reignited Fire for Tennis

By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Monday, June 24, 2024Photograph credit score: Clive Brunskill/Getty

The tennis courtroom may be an emotionally flamable place.

Emma Raducanu says British grass-court season has reignited her emotional fireplace for the game.

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Empowered by her semifinal run in Nottingham—her first ultimate 4 look of the season—Raducanu will play Sloane Stephens tomorrow in an Eastbourne opener of former US Open champions.

After lacking Roland Garros, the 21-year-old Briton says she’s fired as much as be again on grass.

„I am simply actually into it for the time being. I simply love the game, I really like tennis,“ Raducanu advised the media in Eastbourne. „It is taken over me and I’ve actually rekindled a light-weight within the fireplace inside me.

„I am actually grateful to have this sense once more as a result of it is one thing that I really feel I have been lacking in a manner for the previous couple of years and I have never felt this good about my tennis—simply enthusiastic about it and passionate—for an extended, very long time.“

The 2021 US Open champion joins Angelique Kerber, Naomi Osaka and Caroline Wozniacki as one among 4 former Grand Slam champions to obtain main-draw Wimbledon wild playing cards.

It will likely be Raducanu’s first look at The Championships since 2022.

In her 2021 Wimbledon debut, a then 338th-ranked Raducanu upset Marketa Vondrousova and Sorana Cirstea to succeed in the spherical of 16 the place she retired to Ajla Tomljanovic.

Returning to grass has helped Raducanu reclaim her confidence and positivity forward of The Championships, she stated.

„Now it is actually comforting for me as a result of I am manner much less targeted on the outcome as a result of I do know with the way in which I am coaching, the way in which I am competing and preventing on the courtroom, good issues are one hundred pc going to occur,“ Raducanu stated. „I’ve full religion and perception in that now and I can say it and imply it on the similar time, relatively than simply saying it.“