Two-time US Open champion Justine Henin has advised Emma Raducanu to be more focused ahead of the Brit’s US Open title defence.
Raducanu achieved a historic feat at last year’s US Open as she won her maiden grand slam title as a qualifier.
The Brit didn’t drop a set the entire tournament as she defeated Leylah Fernandez in the final.
However since that triumph in New York last year, Raducanu has only won back-to-back matches at four tournaments as she has struggled to match expectations.
It has been a learning experience for the Brit who has changed coaches multiple times and dealt with a number of injuries.
Raducanu has also had to deal with the number of commercial responsibilities that comes with her fame from last year’s victory.
Now Raducanu will look to defend her US Open title, knowing that a poor performance in New York could see her ranking drop dramatically.
One player that knows about how to deal with pressure and expectation is former world number one Justine Henin.
Henin won seven grand slam titles throughout her career and the Belgian has said that Raducanu needs to be focused on this year’s task and not focus on last year’s achivement, “I think it’s time for her that the US Open is behind her,” Henin told Eurosport.
“If we come back a year ago, we couldn’t expect that from her. She was playing the first tournaments on the tour and then she wins a Grand Slam the way she did. We all loved it – it [the final] was with Leylah [Fernandez]. It was fresh. They were playing great tennis.
“We need personalities also on the tour and I think these two really gave us a lot of emotions last year. I was really excited about what was happening and then what happened after – we could expect this in a certain way.
“I don’t know her [Raducanu] personally. So the fact she changed coach, she changed a lot of things – everyone started to criticise this but I’m not into it really to judge this.
“The only thing I say is she needs to be focused on the game if she wants to keep a certain kind of balance in what’s happening for her and after winning a Grand Slam of course so much attention, so many solicitations, agents and probably money and a lot of things.
“We can suppose that it’s not easy to deal with at such a young age with no experience. But you can build, build, build because you are very good, very young and then you start winning Grand Slams early.
“What happened in the last few months with her was quite normal. I think she will be relieved also once this US Open will be behind her. How she’s going to deal with it, we will see. We can suppose it’s not going to be that easy. But I think this game is full of surprises.
“We will see what kind of player she is. We cannot say after the US Open last year what kind of player she was. It was fresh. It was great to see. But we needed to see more. And we cannot judge at this moment right now. We will do it a bit later.”
It will be interesting to see how Raducanu deals with the ups and downs of her career over the years as she looks to overcome the first big test of her young career.
It won’t be easy for Raducanu as she takes on Alize Cornet on Tuesday in her first round match.
Raducanu’s projected US Open draw:
R1: Alize Cornet
R2: Katerina Siniakova
R3: Danielle Collins [19]
R4: Aryna Sabalenka [6]
QF: Paula Badosa [4]
SF: Iga Swiatek [1]
Final: Anett Kontaveit [2]
