Emma Raducanu has made her stance clear (Image: Getty)
Emma Raducanu remains confident about reiniting her career and staving off the threat of losing several big-money sponsorships. The 22-year-old has severely struggled since her miraculous 2021 triumph.
Countless injuries have blighted her performances on the court and off it. She’s seen multiple coaches come and go to no avail. Her latest move has been to appoint fitness trainer Yutaka Nakamura to her coaching team.
He’s worked with fellow Grand Slam champions Maria Sharapova and Naomi Osaka in the past, and has asserted that with his help, “I can become one of the best athletes out there in tennis.”
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“I think he is going to help me just really explore how far I can go, athletically,” she said. “I think it’s a big strength of mine that I have nowhere near fulfilled.
“I think I can become one of the best athletes out there in tennis and I’m just looking forward to seeing how much I can do.”
Raducanu’s emergence as a teenager saw brands queueing up to endorse her, including Dior, Porsche, Tiffany, British Airways, Vodafone and Evian. She was the , a large majority of which came without a racket in hand – an estimated £9million.
Raducanu knows she needs to step up her game (Image: Getty)
Whether they’ll be keen to renew those contracts is another story, though. The pressure’s on for Raducanu to find form again, particularly given the warning from sports finance expert Dr Rob Wilson.
He told : “If she doesn’t start winning games if she doesn’t go deep into tournaments, she is going to really struggle to renegotiate or renew any of those commercial endorsements.
“And the career could be over pretty much in its infancy, which would be a crying shame because she’s a hugely talented individual and hugely marketable as well.”