Emma Raducanu, 18, is set for sponsorship millions as Wimbledon showdown looms
Rads to riches! Tennis golden girl Emma Raducanu, 18, is set for sponsorship millions as Wimbledon showdown looms
- Emma Raducanu, 18, won legions of new fans with her remarkable victory over Sorana Cirstea, the world No 45, on Court One at Wimbledon on Saturday
- British player has a Romanian father and Chinese mother, Ian and Rennee,
- She started her tennis career in Kent, after locating to the UK aged two
- She is guaranteed a payday of at least £181,000 this week as a result of her win
- But her winning smile and easy could see brands desperate to sign her up
- Ranked 336th in the world, Raducanu became the youngest Brit to reach second week of the women’s singles since 1959
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She will take to Wimbledon’s Court One today as Britain’s newest sporting heroine.
But the fuss over her history-making run at the championships seems unlikely to faze Emma Raducanu.
The 18-year-old has been praised for her attitude, composure – and a superstar potential that seems certain to earn her a fortune.
On Saturday, Emma became the youngest British woman to reach the fourth round of the singles at Wimbledon since 1959, a fairytale run that has captured the hearts of the nation.
She will take to Wimbledon’s Court One today as Britain’s newest sporting heroine. But the fuss over her history-making run at the championships seems unlikely to faze Emma Raducanu
Champ in the making: Emma competing in a junior competition in France, left, and on her way to victory at Wimbledon on Saturday. Even if she loses, Emma – who has been praised by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Sir Andy Murray – is tipped to earn millions in sponsorship deals. One expert said: ‘She’s very clean-cut, attractive, multicultural, successful and young’
My little pony: On holiday aged seven. Emma has been described as a ‘model pupil’ by her teachers at Newstead Wood, a selective girls’ grammar school in Orpington, south-east London
It is a miraculous achievement for a player whose world ranking of 338 was the lowest in the women’s draw.
She sat her A-levels in April and played her first WTA Tour match last month having put her tennis career on hold during the pandemic to concentrate on her studies. She is competing at SW19 only after being handed a wild-card entry.
Saturday’s win win means Miss Raducanu is guaranteed a payday of at least £181,000 this week – more than six times her previous accumulated career earnings of £28,762.
Now the teenager, from Bromley, south-east London, is guaranteed £300,000 if she wins her last-16 match against Ajla Tomljanovic.
Hello week two! Emma Raducanu thrilled and charmed in equal measure on No 1 Court as she fought to make it into the last 16. The British player, who has a Romanian father and Chinese mother, started her tennis career in Kent, after locating to the UK at the age of 8
The 18-year-old fairytale third-round victory over Sorana Cirstea, the world No 45, came just weeks after she finished her A-levels
Even if she loses, Emma – who has been praised by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Sir Andy Murray – is tipped to earn millions in sponsorship deals.
Brands are likely to be clambering over themselves to sign her up; with her charming post-match interview on court leaving her joking about how she never expected a second week at Wimbledon.
After her first round victory, she gained 30,000 followers on Instagram – and yesterday’s win took that to another level – she’s currently on 125,000 and rising fast.
The teenager told the adoring crowd on Saturday afternoon. ‘It’s funny because when I was packing to come into the bubble, my parents were like, “Aren’t you packing too many sets of match kit?” So I think I am going to have to do some laundry tonight.’
One expert said: ‘She’s very clean-cut, attractive, multicultural, successful and young.’
Raducanu pictured as a toddler; she moved with parents Ian and Renee to England in 2004
Recipe for success both on and off court: the teenager’s Instagram account has seen her amass 125,000 followers in a week
Born in Canada to a Romanian father and a Chinese mother, Miss Raducanu moved to Britain at the age of two and grew up in London.
She first picked up a racquet aged five and played at Bromley Tennis Academy from the age of ten.
During lockdown, she could be seen knocking tennis balls back and forth to her dad in the quiet cul-de-sac where the family live.
On her Instagram page, the rising star references her global roots listing London, where she lives now, Toronto, where she was born and the two cities where her parents are from Bucharest in Romania and Shenyang in China.
Off court, the teenager speaks Mandarin and is a fan of Taiwanese television shows
Her dual heritage remains important to her and she’s spoken fondly of relatives across the globe, saying: ‘My grandma, Mamiya, still lives in central Bucharest. I go back a couple times a year, stay with her, see her. It’s really nice. I love the food, to be honest.
‘I mean, the food is unbelievable. And my grandma’s cooking is also something special. I do have ties to Bucharest.’
Weeks ago, the teenager, who’s a fan of Taiwanese TV shows, was sitting A-Levels in Economics and Maths at Newstead School in Orpington, Kent.
Emma has been described as a ‘model pupil’ by her teachers at the selective girls’ grammar school.
She achieved three 9s, and four 8s in her GCSEs and is awaiting the results of her maths and economics A-levels.
Headteacher Alan Blount said: ‘From year 7 she was hardworking, diligent, and actually you wouldn’t have known that she was a blossoming tennis superstar alongside it.
‘Her parents have been behind her the whole way with tennis and with school and they’ve made sure that the focus on schooling didn’t drop.’
Raducanu has seen congratulation pour in from both Sir Andy Murray and her maths teacher: She said: ‘I have actually received a few emails from my school teachers. My math teacher emailed me today congratulating me.’
He added that her mother, Renee, and father, Ian, are always ‘supportive and completely in the zone’ at parents’ evenings.
‘They know the importance of education,’ he said. ‘They’re looking to make sure that Emma is achieving in all areas of her life, that’s the school and the sport, and that she’s also reading books and taking part in extracurricular [activities] at school. She is an absolute all-rounder.
‘She’s calm and level-headed in school and humble in that she’s out performing in these tournaments and then she’ll come back to school and be sat alongside her peers again and carry on and you just wouldn’t know that maybe last week she was in France.’
Emma’s maths teacher Sarah Sword, 48, who emailed her after her victory against world number 45 Sorana Cirstea on Saturday, said: ‘She’s a really talented mathematician, she’s a really talented student. She’s very active in class in terms of participating in the lessons, asking questions, answering questions – and she has a very sharp mind. She is going to do brilliantly in her exams. There’s no doubt in my mind.
The teen has spoken about her fondness of her heritage despite living in the UK since she was two, saying she still visits her grandmother in Romania
‘She has managed this amazing balance between her studies and pursuing her passion for tennis. She’s simply lovely.’
The rising star is coached by Murray’s father-in-law Nigel Sears, who said she was ‘born to play tennis’, adding: ‘I knew she was exceptional the first time I saw her.’
Her opponent today has been described in far less flattering terms. Australian Miss Tomljanovic, 28, was accused of being ‘the worst player on tour’ after an ugly on-court row during her third-round match against Jelena Ostapenko on Saturday.
The world number 75, who used to date tennis bad boy Nick Kyrgios and is now in a relationship with Italian player Matteo Berrettini, accused her Latvian opponent of lying about being injured when she called for a medical timeout.
How Emma Raducanu became the Youngest British girl in the last 16 since Christine Truman in 1959
By Sam Merriman for the Mail on Sunday
Emma Raducanu is the youngest British female to make it into the second week at Wimbledon for more than 60 years.
Christine Truman reached the fourth round in 1959 aged 18 years and five months – two months younger than Emma. Remarkably, two years earlier Truman made it to the semi-finals aged 16 in her debut in SW19 in 1957.
Truman’s success was all the more impressive given that since birth she was partially blind in her left eye – a fact her family had kept secret from competitors in her early days.
Asked whether her daughter’s sight had contributed to her disappointing performance at Wimbledon in 1962 when she was knocked out in the third round, her mother told a newspaper: ‘It is nonsense to suggest that Christine’s eyesight has affected her tennis in any way. It was exactly the same when she was on top of her form.’
In a career spanning more than two decades, Truman, an unpredictable player whose form could soar one week and crash the next, won titles in France and Italy and was later a finalist at both Wimbledon and the US Open. She had another successful Wimbledon run in 1965 when – unseeded and all but written off by observers – she made it to the semi-final.
Christine Truman (pictured) reached the fourth round in 1959 aged 18 years and five months – two months younger than Emma
Continuing to play at domestic tournaments throughout her career, she was Martina Navratilova’s first opponent at Wimbledon in 1973.
She married former Wasps rugby player Gerry Janes, and the pair had four children, one of whom – Amanda Keen – went on to become a professional tennis player who twice played at Wimbledon and had a career-best ranking of number 207. Mrs Truman Janes retired from tennis in 1975 and became a commentator for BBC radio.
She was awarded an MBE in the 2001 Queen’s Birthday’s Honours list for her services to sport.
She has also published several children’s books including her first, Dilly And Other Poems, about a loveable doll which finds itself in different situations, such as – unsurprisingly – learning to play tennis.
Even though she stopped playing tennis competitively many years ago, Mrs Truman Janes still takes to the court at her local clubs in Aldeburgh and Thorpeness, Suffolk. She told her local newspaper: ‘It exercises all the muscles and it is something you can keep doing into old age.’
Meanwhile, Britain’s men’s No 2 Cameron Norrie – the last British star in the men’s singles after Andy Murray crashed out of the tournament on Friday – lost his match against Roger Federer yesterday.
Norrie, 25, put up a valiant effort against the eight-time champion but was beaten in four sets.
The player stopped during the match to give a memento of his official Wimbledon towel to a young spectator who had been hit by a tennis ball. It was the third consecutive Grand Slam event where Norrie had reached the last 32, losing to Rafael Nadal at both the Australian and French Opens prior to his defeat to Swiss veteran Federer yesterday.
