Emma Raducanu’s ‘coy smile’ and ‘hair-preen gestures’ while talking about her new doubles partner Carlos Alcaraz certainly suggest a romance is brewing courtside, a body language expert has said.
Last week, it was announced that Emma and Carlos, both 22, will team up for the revamped US Open mixed doubles event in August.
Emma was later spotted cheering for the Spaniard at the Queen’s Club Championship on Thursday and Saturday – the day before he won the competition after beating Jiri Lehecka.
The Sun reported their friendship was the ‘talk of Queens’ as Emma and Carlos’s chemistry left spectators convinced ‘there is something going on between them’.
Speaking in Eastbourne ahead of her first-round match against Ann Li on Sunday, Emma gushed about her ‘genuine connection’ with the two-time Wimbledon champ in an interview that did little to quash the romance rumours, according to body language expert Judi James.
She told FEMAIL that Emma’s nervous demeanour and ‘sweetly-suppressed, coy-looking smiles’ while praising Carlos certainly points to a new tennis love match.
‘The fans love a whiff of a romance and it has to be said that her body language might be a bit of a thirst-trap for audiences starved of a love-all relationship since Jimmy Connors and Chris Evert hooked up back in the Seventies,’ Judi said, referring to the American former tennis players, whose ‘fairytale romance’ also began at the Queen’s Club.
Judi noted how Emma’s features ‘softened’ and ‘gaze became evasive’ as she reflected on her friendship with Carlos, who is the ‘red-hot favourite’ to win Wimbledon after his Queen’s Club victory.
She added that Emma appeared to ‘stall for time’ by repeating the interviewer’s question about Carlos but ‘the way the coy smile spread across her face as she rattled off their history together’ – coupled with the way she played with her hair – was akin to a ‘fan-girl reaction’.
Meanwhile, her body language while watching Carlos play at Queens ‘made her look more like a fan’ than a colleague, Judi continued.
‘It wasn’t quite the kind of intense fangirl displays we get from Taylor Swift as she watches Travis out there on the field but there was some pouting and posing plus some giggling and whispering to her friends,’ she highlighted.
Judi said she also noticed the ‘kind of overkill laugh you do when you’re young and trying to attract a boy’s attention’.
When asked about her new mixed doubles partner on Monday, Emma revealed she became friends with Carlos during her dream debut run at Wimbledon in 2021, saying the five-time Grand Slam champion is ‘just a really positive light to be around’.
‘He’s so nice, very happy, amazing values and just a really positive light to be around,’ Emma praised Carlos.
‘I’ve known him for years. Wimbledon 2021 was the first time I started getting to know him. He was always playing the day before me, I would see him win and then I would have motivation to win and get myself into that position too.
‘It was really cool to go through that tournament together and then I kept going through the US Open, we were staying in touch for the whole time and, yeah, it’s nice.’
When it was put to Emma that tennis fans believe she and Carlos are destined for each other, the tennis star brushed off the rumours by saying: ‘I’m glad the internet is having fun and we’re providing entertainment for everyone.’
Speaking to MailOnline, meanwhile, Carlos shared that Emma made him wait before agreeing to team up for the US Open, before she quipped: ‘Gotta keep them on their toes!’
She later conceded she was alway ‘going to say yes’ but had to ‘go through the formality of speaking to my coach’.
Carlos and Emma’s alleged relationship was all anyone could talk about at Queen’s Club, sources told The Sun.
One person claimed they arrived at the event within minutes of each other and that Carlos was ‘seen at her hotel last week’.
Another insider added: ‘It wasn’t just the tennis lot who were talking about it. People who worked for the BBC and other broadcasters were all gossiping about it.
‘The only love being talked about was about Emma and Carlos.’
MailOnline has contacted representatives for Emma Raducanu and Carlos Alcaraz for comment.
Emma was previously dating Carlo Agostinelli and split up with her Harrow-educated boyfriend last year.
Agostinelli, a former head boy of pricey private school Harrow, is the son of tycoon Robert Agostinelli, the co-founder and chairman of private equity firm Rhone Group.
The tennis star’s year-long whirlwind romance with him was said to have been her most serious relationship yet.
She previously revealed that she wasn’t allowed to date while growing up in Bromley, South East London, which made her resent her strict her parents, Ion and Renee Raducanu.
‘My parents were very much against [boyfriends] as it interfered with training,’ she told The Times.
‘When I was younger I wasn’t even allowed to hang out with my girl friends.
‘A lot of the time I was very resentful. But it made me very confident and comfortable in my own company, which is also a big strength.’
