Swoosh! Emma Raducanu’s tennis racket slices through the air to the approving coos of spectators, as dust rises from where her feet have gracefully landed on the ground. From underneath her cap, she stares straight ahead, focused, serious. Then the camera clicks and the 18-year-old from Kent breaks into a wide, toothy grin.
Raducanu—the young tennis star who, this summer, appeared as if from nowhere to become the nation’s most exciting player in a decade—is in a north London studio being photographed for British Vogue, offering the assorted collection of delighted onlookers (stylist, make-up artist, assistants) a tiny snapshot of the talent that helped make her the first debuting British woman in 42 years to get to the fourth round of Wimbledon.
Whirlwind doesn’t adequately describe the life-changing days that the teenager experienced on the fabled grass courts, which saw a wild card—then ranked world number 338, she is, at the time of writing, 184—take on three of the world’s top players (Vitalia Diatchenko, Sorana Cîrstea, Markéta Vondroušová) and eviscerate each one. Then, five days after her first match, when she was the only Briton left in the singles, Raducanu’s tournament ended as dramatically as it began, when she had to bow out of her match against Ajla Tomljanovic halfway through the second set, after she started experiencing difficulties with her breathing. It was a crushing disappointment for Raducanu and her new legion of fans. But no matter: she had already claimed the hearts of the British public, arguably the hardest-to-win prize of all.
“At one point mid-game, I just let my racket go because I just didn’t believe I made that shot,” she says two weeks later, shaking her head, still in disbelief. Throughout the tournament, her sheer, unabashed enjoyment of the game was, she believes, “genuinely shining through,” which is one of the reasons she thinks she got the public on side so quickly—“and also the fact that I feel I relate to the younger audience, you know, who are still in school.”
Until a few months ago, Raducanu was too. She’s still awaiting her A-level results when we meet, and the night before her Vogue shoot, she was dressed up to the nines on a golf course in Orpington at her school prom (she attended a nearby grammar, the same, coincidentally, as another of Britain’s superstar athletes, Dina Asher-Smith) surrounded by her proud, gobsmacked classmates. To them, Raducanu laughs, she is still the “kid from year seven,” the “quiet one who didn’t really raise her hand.”
Trying to reconcile the young woman in front of me leaping through the air in an Alexander McQueen gown—the same one that I watched whip up the crowd on Centre Court, enjoying shouts of “It’s coming home, Emma!”—with the image that she paints of herself as the shy schoolgirl, is nigh on impossible. “I think the confidence comes from just inner belief,” Raducanu says, tucking into a lunch of tuna and salad in a break between photos. “My mum comes from a Chinese background, they have very good self-belief. It’s not necessarily about telling everyone how good you are, but it’s about believing it within yourself. I really respect that about the culture.”
Sport has undoubtedly played its part in growing the enviable, easy self-confidence that Raducanu radiates today. Born in Toronto, an only child, she moved to Britain with her Chinese mother, Renee, and Romanian father, Ian (both of whom work in finance), when she was two. Growing up in Bromley, from a young age she had the kind of extracurricular schedule that is exhausting merely to read—while her mother was “more traditional” and took her to ballet and tap lessons, her father introduced her to golf and the worlds of motorsports, go-karting, and dirt biking. And, of course, tennis. “He’s all about being different,” she says, “and not caring what other people may have thought at the time.”
Being the “odd one out” was something Raducanu, at first, had to grow used to, but then took pleasure from. “When I was younger, I was the only girl in my group karting or doing motocross, and I thought it was pretty cool,” she says, with such pure enthusiasm that, for a moment, you’re reminded just how young she still is. “For example, one time, my motocross teacher was like, right, we’re going to do press-ups. I was the only one who could do it, so I was proud of myself for that.” Even when she first started playing tennis, “The whole squad I was in was all boys. It was quite intimidating in the beginning to, you know, get out of my shell and actually begin to really enjoy what I was doing because I was so scared. I’m not sure of what.”
She was five when she started playing at the Bromley Tennis Centre, and as her hobby got more serious and weekends started to be given over to traveling and competing in tournaments, motorsports had to take a backseat (it became a matter of natural selection, she jokes). But it is still a great passion—her next ambition is “to get my motorbike license,” she says, grinning. “So I can get back out there.”
That courageousness (how many people, really, do you know who want to race motorbikes?) is evident both on court and off. It is hard to fathom what it must feel like to play a match in front of a home crowd, with the nation’s hopes on your shoulders, and then be forced to retire, on medical advice, halfway through. England footballer Marcus Rashford is one of the few who can understand that unique pressure, and was among the first to reach out to console Raducanu on Twitter. It was, she says, “very comforting in that moment. I was feeling like I let people down, so for him to reassure me like that—I was extremely grateful.” A week later, and it would be Rashford who people were endeavoring to console and defend from a barrage of vile comments after his missed penalty in the Euro 2020 final.
Raducanu made “a purposeful decision to not check social media” during the tournament (her Instagram following has exploded), adding that she has avoided the news for the past month, giving her phone to her physical therapist for safekeeping. Which means she has probably—hopefully—avoided comments made by the likes of broadcasters Piers Morgan and John McEnroe, who suggested she quit her last match owing to mental health pressures. From her point of view, there’s always going to be someone who “has something to say, and I respect everyone’s thoughts and decisions,” says Raducanu, “so I don’t really hold anything against anyone.”
Ultimately, Raducanu knew “it was the best decision for my health and my body” to retire from the match. Equally, she thinks, on the matter of Naomi Osaka opting out of press conferences, and eventually from the French Open in May, that you have to “prioritize yourself.” “If that’s the best thing for her health, mental health, and wellbeing then I think that that’s the right thing to do, because at the end of the day, you’re on this journey alone, no matter how many people are in your corner.”
And Raducanu has many—from astronaut Tim Peake to former Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher, who both tweeted their support for her. Does the latter name mean anything to an 18-year-old? “Of course! You can’t not respect such an icon,” she says, adding that Oasis has “some good throwback hits. You gotta have a diverse music selection.”
But her parents remain the people Raducanu wants to impress the most—and who, perhaps, remain the hardest to. “They’re very tough to please and have high expectations,” she says. “So that’s a big driving factor as to why I want to perform.” They’re not ones given to big celebrations. Instead, their role has been “to keep me grounded,” she continues. “I think they’ve done a really great job. Because I don’t feel like anything is different, in a way. I was straight back to work. And I think that’s a result of many years of them just being super-focused, and not getting too high, but at the same time, not getting too low when the losses come.” After her final Wimbledon match, “they said, ‘I’m proud of you.’ That was all I needed.”
It’s time to get back in front of the camera, and once the shoot is over, to prepare for her trip to America where Raducanu, awarded another wild card, will compete in the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic tournament, and after that dedicate the next part of her life to being a professional player. Since Wimbledon, Raducanu has been invited back to her primary school to meet the students. Inspiring children and young girls is something she is already passionate about. “When I was growing up, there wasn’t a female that I was like, ‘Wow, I want to be like her,’” she says. “I feel like I want to give back to everyone who’s helped me.”
Before she leaves, I ask what tennis has given her. “I was a very shy little girl who didn’t talk much at all,” she says. “And through playing sports, and having to be bold on the court and fearless and fight, it’s given me inner strength. If you have that,” she smiles, “then you can really achieve whatever you want.”