- Emma Raducanu beat British qualifier Mimi Xu, 17, in straight sets at Wimbledon
- Raducanu has endured a difficult four years since her US Open triumph in 2021
Only three British men and 10 British women have won singles titles at tennis Grand Slam events in the last 100 years. Fred Perry is among their number. Virginia Wade is, as well. So is Ann Jones. So is Sir Andy Murray.
And Emma Raducanu, too. Aim whatever calumnies you want at her, but her win at the US Open in 2021 remains one of the greatest sporting stories this country has ever produced. It legitimises her for the rest of time.
So whether her career remains in the shadow of that remarkable victory or not, whether she ever wins another Slam or not, whether she ever gets to another final or not, she deserves our respect and she deserves our hope.
She has walked the walk once and even if her career since then has been a series of stutters, restarts, games of count-her-sponsors and vilification for leaving Murray high and dry in the mixed doubles at Wimbledon last year, her talent still flickers.
She is the British No 1 after all. Most of her career after her triumph at Flushing Meadow has been spent battling injury and changing coaches and yet she is still ranked 40th in the world.
She is 22 and has got to the fourth round of Wimbledon twice. She is still a very fine player, even if it is her fate to be damned with faint praise.
Some have given up on her. There was far more discussion about her relationship with Carlos Alcaraz than her prospects at the All England Club in the run-up to the start of the tournament.
Some have said that our continued anointing of her as the great hope of the women’s game takes us back to a time pre-Murray when we cheered forlornly for Buster Mottram and Jo Durie, knowing that the biggest prizes would elude them. Again, there is an answer to that — US Open, 2021.
There was not too much to glean from Raducanu’s 6-3, 6-3 dismissal of British wildcard Mimi Xu here on No 1 Court.
Xu, from Swansea, is only 17 and was playing her first match in a Grand Slam. She was spirited, but erratic. Raducanu only took an hour and 25 minutes to sweep her aside.
Xu did not disgrace herself, but she had no answer to Raducanu’s serve in the first set and struggled with her opponent’s weight of shot for most of the match. Most of all, she had no answer to Raducanu’s experience. She was, after all, up against a Grand Slam winner.
It is unlikely that Raducanu will make too much of a run at this year’s title. She is struggling with a back injury and if she gets past Marketa Vondrousova, the 2023 Wimbledon champion, in the second round, she will likely play Aryna Sabalenka, the No 1 seed, in the third.
That will probably be the end of it, but maybe it won’t be. Everyone thought it would be the end of it every time she played in New York four years ago and every time she won in straight sets.
Because it happened then, it could happen again. That’s why she deserves our hope. Because if she gets on a roll as she did at Flushing Meadow, if she starts to feel unbeatable, if momentum propels her, then she has the talent to do it. She has proved that before.
It is just that life has got in the way since. Expectation has got in the way. Indecision has got in the way. Sponsor commitments have got in the way. Growing up has got in the way. Injuries have got in the way.
Being harassed by a stalker has got in the way, too. If one image has symbolised the loss of her innocent joy in the game that carried her through qualifying and all the way to the title in New York, it was the disturbing sight of her in tears and hiding behind the umpire’s chair at the Dubai Tennis Championships in February to try to escape the attention of a man exhibiting ‘fixated behaviour’.
That man tried to get a ticket to Wimbledon, too, before his application was intercepted and rejected.
It is another example of the obstacles women on the tour have to struggle with in their pursuit of excellence.
Despite all that, there are tentative signs that Raducanu is finding her form again and rediscovering her belief and confidence. The win over Xu was promising, if nothing more. The next round against Vondrousova, she will have to find a different level again.
‘I’m super-pleased to have come through that match,’ she said. ‘It’s so difficult playing another Brit in the first round. I can’t say I was loving it because Mimi is a really dangerous player.
‘Sometimes, it’s difficult to find rhythm in the moment with nerves and adrenaline and you don’t have an idea of what is going on.
‘I had some really good patches and some moments where I lost my focus. But I’m really happy with how I toughed it out in the really crucial games and how I won the important points. It’s really nice to be back and I just use it as support.
‘I love playing in this atmosphere. It’s my favourite tournament by far. I’m just so happy to get another match here.’
Raducanu laughed, too, about the champagne cork that had sailed in a lazy arc from among the crowd during the break at the end of the first set to land on the court. She bent down to pick it up and remove it.
It is too early for any sort of celebration, but it was a happy omen nonetheless.
‘I’m glad you guys are having a good time,’ she said. ‘Cheers to you.’
