Emma Raducanu on her dreams of winning another title and why she is a big fan of Spurs star Son Heung-min

WTA Tour

Shahida Jacobs
September 19, 2022

Emma Raducanu says she would “love to win a title” and “it doesn’t matter at what level” while she has also expressed her admiration for Tottenham Hotspur attacker Son Heung-min.

Former US Open champion Raducanu is looking for some confidence boosting matches following a disappointing 2022 campaign that saw her struggle to string together a decent run of form.

Following her first-round defeat at Flushing Meadows in August, she made another early exit from the Slovenia Open last week as she went down in the second round.

However, she will get back on the horse on Wednesday as will take on Moyuka Uchijima in the first round of the Korea Open.

“I would obviously love to win a title, and to be honest, I think that it doesn’t matter at what level. I think now just playing a lot of matches is something that I could really benefit from,” the 19-year-old, who is now ranked No 77 in the world, said.

“I know that I was meant to go through the development year at some stage, and I completely skipped it last year, so I know that I need to do the hard yards now. And it’s sort of payback for winning the US Open with very little practice or work.”

Raducanu’s only top-level trophy to date is the Grand Slam title she won in New York last year.

Despite things not going well on court, Raducanu continues to put in the hard work as she revealed that she has put in “more hours than I’ve ever really trained before”.

The British No 1 added: “And that might leave me tired occasionally. In some matches, I might feel it more than others.

“But I’m just going to commit to this to get fitter and stronger, and next year I’m going to have a lot more tolerance to high intensities.”

Earlier this year Raducanu revealed that she is a fan of Premier League club Tottenham and she has expressed her admiration for Son following her arrival on Seoul.

The South Korea international marked his return to form with a hat-trick against Leicester City in a league match on Sunday.

“I really resonate with him, and I think that what he’s doing for sport and football in Asia and in Korea especially is massive,” Raducanu said.

“I think that there are going to be a lot more future athletes coming from this side of the world.”

Emma Raducanu