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Emma Raducanu spoke glowingly of the support and positive advice she has received from Lewis Hamilton since winning the US Open as she looks to move forward and continue to grow as an athlete. .
“He was really cool helping me,†Raducanu said. “He said, ‘Be patient, you just have to ride the wave. It’s perfect. Do not worry.’ Good comfort. He’s a really cool guy. Having participated in motorsports throughout her youth, Raducanu is a big fan of Formula 1 and she says she encourages Hamilton.
She is still not convinced by suggestions that she could beat him to win the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award: “I don’t even think about it,” she said. “For me, this is something that is so far beyond the realm of the possible that I don’t even understand how it could be a possibility.”
Raducanu was speaking after beating Elena-Gabriela Ruse 6-3, 7-6 (3) in an exhibition match during the Champions Tennis event at the Royal Albert Hall. It was the first time Raducanu had performed in front of a local crowd since becoming US Open champion in September.
An exhibition match in front of a large and supportive crowd who only came to see Raducanu was another of the many new experiences for her since her title at the US Open.
Ruse is one of Raducanu’s good friends on the tour and as an older, more outgoing personality, she took the lead by joking with the crowds and chatting with the ballkids throughout. Afterward, Raducanu said it was one of the first times she has picked up a racket since her season ended earlier this month.
After recently returning from a hiatus in the Caribbean, her first vacation in seven years, Raducanu has now switched to preseason training where she currently undergoes five-hour fitness blocks a day without tennis while she seeks to achieve her goal of closing the physical gap between herself and the supreme adult athletes on tour.
“You can ask my trainer, I feel like I’m starting the day off on the right foot, then by the fourth hour I really feel it,” she said with a laugh after being asked. how much she enjoyed her job. “I know it gives me confidence that I’m working and I feel like I take this as a mentor, you know, as your strength and your advantage.”
From next week, Raducanu will join her new coach, Torben Beltz, the veteran former coach of Angélique Kerber, as she resumes her full training on the court. Her next competition will be another show at the Mubadala World Tennis Championships in Abu Dhabi on December 16, and then she will end her offseason in the Middle East before heading to Australia to start her season in January.
“For me, my expectations of myself are to keep improving, I want to look back at the end of the year and see that I have made gains in different areas. I know it will take a lot of patience. to get to where I want to be and smooth that consistency, it’s about developing physical strength, â€she said.
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Another glimpse into Raducanu’s popularity came right after the game as she stayed on the pitch for an interview and she encouraged Ruse to join her at the microphone. However, the interviewer harshly made it clear that he was only interested in speaking with Raducanu. Asked once again how she handles such attention, she immediately responded.
“For me, I’m just going about my business. I take the train in [to training] sometimes and do the same trips that I used to do. I feel like I’m the exact same person and I’m just going to do everything I used to do, I don’t see why I should change the things that got me this title. I still appreciate it.
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