Emma Raducanu turned up for her Wimbledon warm-up in an England shirt on Sunday, saying she wants to add to a special sporting summer of British celebrations.
As one of 19 Brits in the singles draw, Raducanu appeared relaxed ahead of facing No 22 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia. The 21-year-old hoped to watch the Three Lions win in the European Championship last night before securing a roaring win of her own on Centre Court today.
‘I would love to be a part of it,’ she said. ‘It’s just an amazing summer of sport. It’s football, it’s F1, it’s tennis, the races. I’ve been saying that every day on site right now at Wimbledon is a blessing.
‘I feel a lot more comfortable this year. There’s a lot less going on. There’s a lot less stress or chaos. I’m more just coming here, doing my practice, playing the match. Like there’s not there’s not much else to it, whereas in 2022 I was in a big rush.’
Raducanu also missed the 2023 edition of Wimbledon as she recovered from surgery. This year’s SW19 is as open as ever, particularly on the men’s side with Novak Djokovic’s condition not entirely known after knee surgery in the last month.
Emma Raducanu turned up for her Wimbledon warm-up in an England shirt on Sunday
‘It’s nice to have a lot of young players,’ Raducanu said. ‘Both on the men’s and women’s. On the men’s side, to have Carlos (Alcaraz) and Jannik (Sinner) and Holger (Rune) right up there at the top and they’re even a few months younger than me, it’s pretty amazing.
‘On the women’s side as well it’s very strong, but we tend to go through the stages earlier than the men’s. But it’s just exciting. It’s great for the public. It’s great for the crowd to see young people, see their personalities and how they differ.’
