When Emma Raducanu lost her opening match at the 2024 Madrid Open, British BJKC Team Captain Anne Keothavong—a former WTA player—took offense.
The captain of the British Billie Jean King Cup, Keothavong, is well acquainted with Raducanu. Given that Keothavong previously made some remarks about Raducanu that were thought to be a little harsh, their relationship has been interesting thus far.
During the Billie Jean King Cup Qualifiers, Raducanu proved to be the standout player for Great Britain, giving the impression that they had reconciled. Even after her defeat at the Madrid Open, Keothavong continued to critique her performances.Raducanu made hints about being extremely worn out from playing a lot of tennis lately, and the courts reflected this. Keothavong said that she wasn’t a fan of the fact that she didn’t really try too hard at the WTA 1000 event.
In her interview yesterday (Tuesday), she said as much, but looking back, do you persuade yourself into becoming more exhausted? While it’s important to recognize it, you also need to be ready to give it your best on the court if you want to move on. It just didn’t feel like that willingness was there.”
Raducanu was persuaded to play because it was a WTA 1000 event, but Keothavong felt it would have been wiser to forego it since the British player wasn’t prepared to play in the capital of Spain.
“But when you see a player perform like that, you kind of question, ‘OK, maybe physically I wasn’t ready for it, mentally I wasn’t engaged and actually I probably could have done with the week off.’”
“Maybe in hindsight it would have been better to take this week off and go to play qualifying in Rome [the Italian Open starts next week].”
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