Colin Fleming, a former British tennis player and the 13th-ranked player in the world in doubles, is cautioning Emma Raducanu from allowing herself to play like Madrid because it could develop into a really bad habit.
Raducanu’s valiant efforts between April 12 and 13 helped Great Britain defeat France on the road in the Billie Jean King Cup qualifying match. Raducanu then maintained her excellent form in Stuttgart last week, winning two matches and playing brilliantly in a close quarterfinal loss to world No. 1 Iga Swiatek.
Raducanu unexpectedly fell 2-6-2-6 to qualifier Maria Lourdes Carle in the Madrid first round after drawing attention to herself and seemed much more serious with her play and results. After a disappointing performance against Carle, Raducanu attributed her failure on fatigue, both mental and physical.
Raducanu, 21, was admonished by British Billie Jean King Cup captain Anne Keothavong in the Sky Sports studio that she should have withdrawn from the competition if she didn’t feel ready to compete after she had been “emotionally checking out” in the previous few games.
Raducanu is warned by Fleming on what to avoid.
She doesn’t want to play more or give more performances of that kind because then it would start to become somewhat of a habit. “After Keothavong’s statement, you really have to try to start over and make better decisions,” Fleming said on Sky Sports.
In the meanwhile, here is what Raducanu stated following her loss.
“A lot has happened in the previous few weeks. I haven’t stopped since winning the Billie Jean King Cup,” Raducanu remarked following the game.
It’s been back-to-back, and I was thrilled to be able to support the team in the BJK Cup. After that, I traveled straight to Stuttgart without stopping, and now I’m trying to adjust to the new environment here—which is much different from what I was used to playing indoors for the previous month.
“Today has been incredibly difficult due to a lot of circumstances, but overall, I’ve been playing fairly well.”
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