After her phenomenal success at the US Open 2021, Emma Raducanu could not express her best tennis in continuity and therefore lives a rather complicated season. In recent months, the British player has received criticism for signing numerous sponsorship deals with some of the most famous companies in the world, including Tiffany & Co., Dior, Porsche or Vodafone UK.
According to some tennis commentators, the young player born in 2002 gives more weight to activities that take place outside of tennis than to the tournaments she plays.
Emma Raducanu chooses Russian coach: UK shocked
The great opportunity to find a smile on the tennis court may come to the United States for Raducanu.
She had stunned the tennis world, winning her first-ever Grand Slam title at the US Open as a qualifier, and will now do her best to repeat the feat at Flushing Meadows.
Only, before the start of the last major of the year, a controversy arose around the choice of his new coach. The Briton has indeed chosen to temporarily rely on Russian coach Dmitry Tursunov, who is also the former coach of Aryna Sabalenka and Anett Kontaveit.
The young champion certainly did not even pay attention to the nationality of the coach – as is always the case in the best of all worlds – her objective being to simply put all the chances on her side to win the US Open again. The trial period between the two will begin at the WTA tournament in Washington.
In Great Britain, the government did not appreciate the choice of Raducanu quite simply because the trainer in question is of Russian nationality, which ended up transforming this simple sports recruitment into a real political affair.
Chris Bryant, a Labor MP, bluntly attacked Raducanu in the Telegraph: “The Kremlin will use this decision for its propaganda, as an indicator that Britain is not at all concerned about the war in Ukraine.
It would be a shame if Emma would pursue this idea she had, so I ask her to seriously reconsider it and condemn Putin’s barbaric war” It remains to be seen whether this surreal polemic sparked in Britain, because of the nationality of a tennis coach, will affect Raducanu’s performance in the United States.
She hopes to defend the title obtained last year at the US Open and, given all the current problems, it will not be an easy task.
