Emma Raducanu shook the world in 2021 when she won the US Open with an astounding victory. However, her performance after that has not been consistent. Consequently, the media and people constantly criticized her for not doing her best. Nonetheless, the player has remained strong. Recently, her old rival from her junior days, Sonay Kartal, came out in her favor. She shared her views on the current state of the situation.

The tennis realm has repeatedly brought the British tennis sensation under the spotlight for her multiple high-end endorsements. However, Raducanu has been focusing on her training, and a few times she has retorted back to harsh criticism.

Emma Raducanu’s former rival opened up about the backlash towards the former US champion

Raducanu became people’s favorite after winning the 2021 US Open major. People swooned at her astounding performance and marveled at the rise of the underdog. However, fans had more expectations from her and wanted her to do better and win more matches. So, when her performance deteriorated, the player received a lot of criticism from people and the media. Opening up these same issues, recently her former junior rival Sonay Kartal opened up about her.

She told Express, “I think obviously, with what she’s done she’s obviously now in the spotlight and I think being so young. It’s probably something that she hasn’t really had the cameras on her as she does now.” As a matter of fact, she said, “It was kind of expected that she was going to be criticized on everything.” However, she also showed faith in her formal rival to overcome this and said, “But I think she’s just going to become used to it and used to having people look at her 24/7 trying to pick something out.”

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Kartal summarised it as the part and parcel of being a top tennis player. She said, “It’s a part of the sport isn’t it, it’s a part of anything. So it’s just, unfortunately, one of the factors of being a top tennis player.” Sonay Kartal and Raducanu played each other quite often during the finals in their junior days. But during the age of 13-14, the other player had to take a break because of her injuries. However, they came back together during the Billie Jean King Cup.

Emma Raducanu imbibes the same stance as her idol, Lewis Hamilton

A huge F1 fan, Raducanu derived inspiration from her idol, Lewis Hamilton, as people once again criticized her for doing various endorsements. The 20-year-old earned more than the incumbent world no. 1 Iga Swiatek, and this has made her the bait for criticism once again.

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However, Raducanu retorted by clarifying that she has never cut down on any training or practice session to indulge in the endorsements. This is something Raducanu had clarified earlier as well. However, people seem to believe that these have distracted her from her game.