Emma Raducanu is back to her joyous self! The British tennis sensation has made a comeback on one of her favorite surfaces after missing a major part of the clay-court season. Raducanu is currently playing in the WTA 250 event Nottingham Open and she made a winning start there, defeating Ena Shibahara in straight sets 6-1, 6-4. Subsequently, she made a hilarious admission about fellow player Ons Jabeur, which went all wrong.

Raducanu is accompanied by the Tunisian, who is the top seed in the tournament. The two are good friends and share a wonderful bond on and off the court. At the end of last month in an interview, Jabeur even jokingly offered to coach Raducanu if she was hiring! During the Nottingham Open, the two also practiced together and seeming had a good time.

Further, in the post-match press conference after her first-round victory, Raducanu was asked who was the better of the two during that practice session. The Briton jokingly replied, “Yeah I did good. I was good.”

Looking around in the silence, Raducanu laughed and asked the reporters if they wanted her to tell them the score or something. However, the Briton was soon caught off-guard when the interviewer did ask her about the score against Jabeur in that practice session.

Raducanu broke out a laugh and confessed, “Sorry I was joking.” Although laughter broke out on her face, Raducanu was left embarrassed with this situation as her joke went all wrong.

The two players met at the beginning of the year when Jabeur defeated Raducanu 6-4 6-1 in the second round of the Abu Dhabi Open in February. The Tunisian had nothing but praise for her when she said of the brit, “She didn’t make it easy for me, obviously. Emma is such an amazing player, I wish her all the best because I know she can play much better. I am a big fan of hers.”

Despite Jabeur proving her superiority in the practice session against Raducanu, the latter was all praise of her good friend. She made a heartwarming confession on Jabeur moments before cracking that joke.

Emma Raducanu has nothing but respect for Ons Jabeur

Although Jabeur and Raducanu haven’t played much against each other, the two often hit it out on the court together in practice sessions. The Nottingham Open was one such occasion where Raducanu trained with Jabeur. Eventually, their relationship has grown and the two have developed mutual respect for each other.

As a result, when the interviewer asked Raducanu about Jabeur, she made a heartwarming comment about her, saying, “Ons is a great person for me to have and be around on tour. I mean she’s obviously so experienced and has achieved so much and she’s a really good person and genuine person.”

Like Raducanu, Jabeur also had an easy opening round at Nottingham Open, winning her match against Camila Osorio in straight sets 6-2, 6-3. Jabeur and Raducanu are placed in the opposite halves of the draw and can only meet in the summit clash. However, if they do face each other here, it would surely be a cracker of a contest.