Emma Raducanu won the US Open this year. She was born in Canada, but she’s a British citizen and she plays for Britain. She was the first British woman to win a Slam title (in singles) since the 1970s. She’s the first qualifier to win a Slam. She was the youngest woman to win a Slam since Maria Sharapova won Wimbledon in 2004. Emma is also a huge success story for the British tennis development programs, especially the youth programs. British tennis (correctly) got a lot of sh-t for many years for not doing enough to develop homegrown talent. Even Andy Murray outgrew Scottish/British facilities/programs and had to train in Spain as a kid! Emma is the product of the Lawn Tennis Association’s youth development programs, and the LTA made a significant investment in her, which paid off spectacularly in New York.
The point is that Emma is going to be stuck doing kids’ tennis clinics and LTA events for the rest of her career. It’s not the biggest chore in the world (I bet Emma loves the kids’ clinics), but the LTA is going to ask her to do their events for many, many years to come. Soon after Emma won the US Open, the LTA asked her to do an event at Roehampton with other British tennis stars like Joe Salisbury and Alfie Hewitt. It seemed to me like the real purpose of the event was that the Duchess of Cambridge wanted to meet Emma. Kate wanted to pose in a short tennis skirt and have a hit with the newly-minted Slam champion. So Emma obliged and photos were taken and all was well. As I said, this is Emma’s life now. Everyone wants a piece of her, including royalty. Emma recently chatted to People Magazine about meeting Kate, and Emma must have gotten her talking points straight from Kensington Palace.
Kate Middleton may have an “incredible forehand,” according to U.S. Open winner Emma Raducanu, but the British tennis champion is impressed by more than just the royal’s tennis skills.
“I think the Duchess is such a great inspiration, just with how she handles everything and how she does so much good work for charities,” Raducanu, 19, tells PEOPLE. “She’s a real inspiration to the whole country.”
Kate and Raducanu paired up for a quick doubles game in September during an event for the Lawn Tennis Association, of which the royal is patron.
“It was a pretty surreal experience to be playing tennis with the Duchess,” Raducanu says, adding that Kate played “very well.”
“It was kind of crazy, but she was really down to earth and normal,” she adds. “So I found it a really cool experience.”
The athlete, who is Evian’s newest global ambassador the brand announced Thursday, says that despite that drive and work ethic, she’s been working on being “patient” and “kind” to herself.
“A lot of the time I can get so caught up in the moment and caught up in a particular shot that, I’m very tough on myself,” she tells PEOPLE. “So to step back and look at how far I’ve come, I think that’s the biggest thing I’ve learned [this year], just to be patient.”
I think it’s funny that Emma thinks Kate has a good forehand! That must be how Kate spends her time – she’s playing tennis and working on her forehand. I’m also curious about Kate’s backhand! I saw some of the video from her practice with Emma and it looked like Kate doesn’t really have much of a backhand, she just sort of slices it and pops it up. Anyway, Emma only recently turned 19 years old. She’s not part of the royal wars and she probably doesn’t know much about Kate or the Windsors or anything. Emma met a duchess and thought “wow, that’s cool.” It will get less cool in the years to come for Emma.
Incidentally, I like Emma’s attitude about being patient. She had a rough time of it after New York, losing early in Indian Wells and kind of losing the plot at a tournament in Romania. It will be interesting to see what kind of vibe she brings to the 2022 season.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
I hope this great kid has a long and enjoyable career! Also, you should have heard some of the praise and love I heaped on the undeserving when I was 19. Johnny Depp, Bill Cosby, my then-new husband……..I’ll give her a pass.
She seems like such a kind young woman, she’s definitely talented. I wonder what’s with all the Kate praise and stories the last couple of days. For lack of a better word, it’s gross.
Lol, it was 100% about Kate getting to wear a tennis skirt for photographs.
Could her skirt be ANY shorter?!?
Sure, whatever. Emma’s life has been taken up with her sport; I’m sure she has no idea what Kate does or doesn’t do for charities. Actually, I imagine most people have no idea – they just hear that Kate supports some charities and then assume that means something.
^^ Exactly. A lot of people have no idea, because they either don’t follow the royals, or don’t read the tabloids. Or, if they do read the tabloids and mainstream pick-up articles drafted from the tabloids, then they tend to believe the nonsense storylines against Meghan and Harry, and the embiggening of the Cambridges. Many people aren’t that deeply interested in the royals anyway, so they only have a surface, trivial knowledge.
Even I, having followed the royals off-and-on since the Diana years, had originally believed the Cambridges were at the very least, decent people. At the same time, I always felt they were boring, and that’s never changed. But once it was revealed that Meghan and Harry were dating, I began to closely follow royal events and personalities. I also began following the Sussex Squad, and slowly the down and dirty knowledge behind the surface dawned on me.
I can’t not see the ugly behind W&K’s performative, put-on personas now. I truly hope that the Cambridges will get the karmic reckoning and the comeuppance they deserve.
Meanwhile, good luck to Emma Raducanu!
Did anyone else first read this as “an incredible forehead”? I made that mistake and thought yeah, Botox will do that.
Yes! I commented on that below. I thought Emma was told to compliment Kate & that was the best she could come up with.
I did the same thing too!
Emma is too busy training to pay attention to the little Kate does, which clearly includes practicing a lot of tennis if needed forehand is decent. She’s probably unaware of the charities that have folded under Kate’s patronage or the projects that have been abandoned.
But let’s look at what Emma has achieved by age 19 without being born into money and then look at what kate has done by age 40. It’s a stark contrast and really with all the privilege Kate has had for decades it shows just how little kate has done with her life.
This just sounds like she’s got a typical image of Kate like most of the UK does: nice and is involved with charities. Note that I am saying IMAGE so I’m NOT saying this is the truth. I know it isn’t but it’s the image she’s got from what I see as someone who lives in the UK.
I dunno what people were expecting but what else is she supposed to say?
IKR? She’s not a royal commentator, and what would be the point of being scandalous n her comments?
Yeah she’s just being polite.
I’m not expecting any sports person especially, one who’s a media darling, to say anything bad about Kate or anybody else in the Royal Family. If she did she’d be attacked by the British press. For all his outspokenness, Lewis Hamilton just accepted a Knighthood from Charles and said he was fan of the Royal Family. I accept that they have to play the game. I just hope that Emma knows that when she goes on a losing streak next year (it’s inevitable because of the other players will know who she is by then) that the same press that loves her now will be pointing out that she’s an immigrant of mixed race heritage and that her parents are from Romania and China.
Well that’s going to hurt her, in the British press, as we all know how racist a majority of the Salty Island is!! She’s everyone’s favorite now. Though I highly doubt that her “comments” were purely her own. She has no idea what Mutton’s does and doesn’t do, and these puff statements weren’t purely her own, except maybe the forehand comment.
Though she sounds quite mature for her age and seems to understand what her mindset needs to be when she is playing or competing. I hope that she is able to continue playing and that she succeeds in life, both in her sport and her personal life as well.
You know, there are racists in every country. I don’t think you would like it if I suggested a majority of Americans were racist, on the basis of comments in some of your media. I’m a brown person living in London and I really don’t think the majority here are racist. I had it a lot worse last time I visited the US actually, people there seemed obsessed with wanting to know what race I was.
C’mon, the bar is super low for Kate. All she has to do is be nice to strangers for five minutes and they will say she is a nice person. I don’t doubt Emma had a good experience with her and being a Brit, it’s good for her to focus on the positive. However, Khate’s true character shines through for those who marry into the family and are forced to work directly with her. I bet Emma has an opinion about Harry and Meghan too (the students from the school Keen visited certainly did and they’re younger than her) but she is not going to self-sabotage at this stage in her career. On a larger scale, Eugenie still has to put up with her incandescent cousin and his mean girl wife in public, so decorum must remain as long as Duchess Blossoming Mutton has a public role.
Every year, this poor girl is going to be called up by that organization for an event designed to prop up Kate. Just watch. It’s like she won the Hunger Games or something. This is for the rest of her career. She’s a winner and the Kate will never let her go. Lol
I just glanced at the headline–and I’m only just out of bed–but I thought it read that Emma said Kate had ‘an incredible forehead’. And I thought, wow, no one’s said that before. They must be really trying to come up with something nice to say.
@BeanieBean – Me too!!!! When I first read “forehand”, I miss read it as “forehead”. LOL!
People magazine works overtime pushing “perfect Kate” narrative I see
Union Snack, Right? I can just hear the interviewer, “The Duchess is known for her charity work and can you speak to how inspirational she is?” Is there anyone anywhere who considers Kant an inspiration?
I mean, what else was she supposed to say? She’s being diplomatic. But being “an inspiration” is definitely not one of it. If anything, Mumbleton is a classic example of doing nothing, standing for nothing and being nothing. At the end of the day, the only people she inspires are derangers with a vendetta against Meghan. In essence, she represents nothing but a life of social climbing and hateful jealousy.
My goodness in that top photo, Emma and the young man have polite smile, and kate with big, over the top, fake grin, is so inappropriate. Does she not review her photos, and try and practice polite smiles?.
Many people grin and laugh a lot when they’re nervous. I think Kate is over her head meeting people and this is what she resorts to.
emma is a champion tennis player. I think Emma is the inspirational one.
Wouldn’t she say champions like Serena Williams and Billie Jean King were inspirational to her? Kate never was a tennis champion.
Why isn’t the royal rota mad that people is getting all of this coverage on will and Kate and they’re getting the sloppy seconds
Totally what we need in a Queen consort, someone who plays tennis! To be fair this was a good event for Kate because she is quite sporty. Please bowl a corgi at me because I just can’t understand Kate not wanting to improve her public speaking? It is an essential part of the job (tennis skills optional). Kate loves the limelight, wearing red tossing her hair back searching for the cameras. She knows public speaking is part of being that accomplished woman so why not get training from the best? Emma Thompson is a big fan of Chas, get her round to work with Kate to loosen up and get some humor and warmth . Jazz hands is a okay for Fosse but not for FQ!