Emma Raducanu under-fire despite following advice of her critics

Emma Raducanu has taken a wildcard into the Dubai Tennis Championships – and the reaction on social media has been predictably negative.

Raducanu‘s use of wildcards have often been criticised by those on social media, as they suggest she is keen to take a backdoor route back to the top of the game by using her status as a Grand Slam champion to get entries into big tournaments.

The 2021 US Open champion has taken 13 wildcards into main draws of high-profile tournaments since she returned from a long injury lay-off at the start of 2024.

She has experienced mixed success over that time, but long periods away from the court also added to the chorus of criticism around her.

Yet any suggestion that Raducanu wanted to be a “part-time” tennis player has been banished in recent weeks, with her tournament schedule stepped up at the start of this year.

She played at the Australian Open and backed that up with appearances in tournaments in Singapore, Abu Dhabi and Doha.

While she lost in the first round of those three events, her active schedule is evidence of a change of approach for Raducanu, who admitted last year that she would ‘never’ play a full schedule.

That stance was changed in the final months of last season and now she is trying to play more tournaments and get herself into match shape for the challenges presented on the WTA Tour.

Yet such is the negativity that follows Raducanu’s every decision, it is no surprise to see her vocal critics spouting their familiar negativity at this latest wildcard move.

Several snipes on social media have suggested she should not be handed any more wildcards, while others sniped she had shown her reluctance to play in lower-ranked tournaments was highlighted by her eagerness to take centre stage at another WTA 1000 event.

In the opinion of former British No 1 Tim Henman, Raducanu is doing the right thing by playing as many events as possible, as he argues her ability will shine through if she spends more time on the court.

“If she can stay healthy and competes a lot, the results will come because she’s that good,” said Sky Sports Tennis analyst Henman.

“If she wasn’t good enough, you’d say she has to pick her tournaments and play some weaker events. With Emma, if she stays healthy, I’m convinced the results will follow.

“I never thought it was about her level. When she has played, her level has always been very good, but if you look at the breakdown of her ranking last year, I think she played 33 matches and 11 of them were on grass.

“When you look at the other 10 months of the year, to have only played 22 matches is so few. She is aware of that, I’m sure, and she will get a coach at the right moment, but for me, the physical work she is doing is most significant.

“I’ve always been a big, big advocate of playing matches. I always played a lot of matches and Emma is right to do that now.”

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The social media snipers who appear to delight at Raducanu’s failings are never far away and according to former WTA Tour player Naomi Broady, her critics are misguided.

“People who have that attitude and say Emma got lucky when we won the US Open don’t understand tennis,” Broady told Tennis365 in an exclusive interview. “You hear them say she is a one-Slam wonder and it was a fluke that she won the US Open.

“If you understand tennis, you will know that is not possible. You can’t come through qualifying, win seven matches without dropping a set and win a Grand Slam by luck.

“She has the level and she needs to get back there and it’s incredibly difficult not to look at those articles online and get dragged into the negativity.

“Hopefully the team around her will help with that and that may be why over the last year or two she has made that close circle much smaller. She needs that protection around her.”

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