Emma Raducanu reflects on whirlwind 12 months, saying: ‘I’m very proud’
British number one Emma Raducanu has reflected on her crazy year since finishing her A levels, as she said, “I would have taken everything that has happened since.”
London-born Raducanu has had a unbelievable past 12 months as she went from completing her school exams to becoming the first ever qualifier, man or woman, to win a Grand Slam.
Now, one year on from her exams, Raducanu, who is playing in her first full season on the WTA tour, sits eleventh in the world and is picking up her form in her first ever clay court season on the tour.
Last week she reached the quarter-finals of the Stuttgart Open losing to world number one and eventual winner Iga Swiatek.
Despite splitting with her latest coach Torben Belz last week too, she has maintained her form in the Madrid Masters this week as she moved into the second round of the tournament.
Speaking to reporters at La Caja Magica following her opening round win against the Czech Tereza Martincova, Emma Raducanu reminisced over her eventful past 12 months saying, “It’s funny because I was on my phone today and I looked at it and it sent me like the memories and one year ago today, I took my last maths exam, my Paper Three and then I was just reflecting on that and I was like: ‘Oh my god, like 365 days ago, I was literally sat in an exam hall doing Paper Three.’
“I would have taken everything that’s happened and dealt with any sort of downs or losses or whatever those feelings are, if you would have given me what I’ve had in the last year, so it definitely gave me a lot of satisfaction and being very proud of myself. So I was really looking forward to carrying on.”
Raducanu also discussed how she has developed over the past year stating she has learnt to enjoy her time on tour even when she loses.
“If I hadn’t have won the US Open, I feel like that would have been a good result for someone who’s 19. But in the more recent weeks, I have definitely just taken more pleasure in the journey of it and even when I’m losing, I find it like a great challenge to pick myself back up.”
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