The agent of Emma Raducanu has argued that her hugely increased commercial opportunities are not to blame for the dip in form that followed her sensational US Open triumph in 2021. 

The Bromley born teen, who was 18-years-old at the time, made history in September of last year as she became the first ever qualifier to win a Grand Slam title and also became the first British woman in 44 years to win a major title.

But since her historic victory at Flushing Meadows, Raducanu has struggled for form and fitness since then and heads into Wimbledon, where she will face Belgium’s Alison van Uytvanck in the first round, having lost 11 of her 19 matches in 2022 so far.

Raducanu’s astonishing triumph at Flushing Meadows led to huge commercial interest, and she now has lucrative deals as a brand ambassador for nine companies.

However, her agent Max Eisenbud insisted that the off-court opportunities have not impacted her game.

Speaking in a recent interview, Eisenbud told reporters, “It’s been a tough year. I think she got a lot of bad luck and what really hurt her was [catching] Covid and not having a great off-season, and then she was playing catch up.

“But I think that if she had zero shoot dates, everything would be the same.

“I know from the outside, you guys want to look at all those things – but if she locked herself in the room for the whole year and didn’t do anything, I think it would be the same.”

Eisenbud also explained that measures have been put in place to ensure that the 19-year-old’s time spent with off-court responsibilities is limited.

“We could have done 50 days of shoots. I’ve never seen the amount of excitement and companies that wanted to be in business with Emma after the US Open.”