Mats Wilander thinks Emma Raducanu has inspired more players to believe they can go to a Grand Slam and pull off a stunning triumph. A year ago, Raducanu wrote tennis history when she became the first qualifier ever to win a Grand Slam.
At the time, Raducanu was the 150th-ranked player in the world and playing just her second Grand Slam tournament. Going into last year’s US Open, nobody really had a Raducanu as a title favorite. But Raducanu delivered stunning three weeks of tennis and is now recognized as a Grand Slam champion.
Wilander on Raducanu’s influence
“I think we have to be prepared that she can take another run,” Wilander told Eurosport. “For sure because when she plays well, she has a consistency in her game that is incredible and mentally she is there all the time, every point.
The question, though, is, I think because she won it, there’s so many women that either believe it themselves, or they are told by their teams and their coaches that ‘Hey, Emma Raducanu won the US Open, so why can’t you?’ So, I think that by her winning, she’s opened up a can of worms where it used to be maybe five to 10 players that literally believed they could win it.
Now you have got 50 players that think they can win it and that makes it much harder”. 12 months have passed since Raducanu’s stunning US Open triumph but she hasn’t had any victories since. For the first time in her career, Raducanu returns to a tournament as the defending champion.
In the US Open first round, Raducanu faces a very tricky opponent as she plays Alize Cornet. Cornet is certainly capable of pulling off upsets, having stunned Iga Swiatek at this year’s Wimbledon. It remains to be seen how far can Raducanu go in her second US Open campaign.
