Emma Raducanu won’t imitate Ash Barty and ‘wants to play into her thirties’
Emma Raducanu has shared that she won’t follow Ash Barty’s example and cut her career short, saying “she wants to be in the game for as long as possible.”
Earlier this week, women’s World number one and reining Australian Open victor Ash Barty announced her retirement from tennis aged just 25 years old, at the peak of her powers.
Barty’s retirement took the sport by surprise and as such emotional tributes have began pouring in for the Australian legend.
At the age of just 25, Barty won three Grand Slam titles in the 2019 French Open, 2021 Wimbledon and this year’s Australian Open.
19-year-old US Open champion Raducanu will likely be hoping to to have a career trajectory similar to Barty’s and win more Major titles of her own.
Speaking before her Miami Open loss to Katerina Siniakova, World number 13 Raducanu said “for me, I want to be in the game as long as possible. I’m only 19. I’ve just come on tour and I want to be in the game until I’m in my thirties.
“It just shows you don’t need to be only ‘tennis, tennis, tennis.’ I think that education part helped a lot. I know a lot of players who quit school when they’re 12 or 13. They over train and they pick up injuries. When you’re that young, it’s not healthy to be training that many hours.
“I feel by having school it definitely kept my mind occupied. Opened up the more intellectual side of tennis, because I feel like I like to use my brain more,” the British starlet said.
“I really like motorsport, so when I get time off, which is pretty rare, I just try and spend time with my family and friends, catch up, always following the races.
“Right now all I care about is getting through the season in one piece. I feel like because I have been losing early every week, I don’t really care because I kind of like the challenge of being knocked down and trying to climb back up there.”
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