Come on you Spurs – Emma Raducanu wears Tottenham shirt in preparations for Porsche Tennis Grand Prix
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Published 19/04/2022 at 08:22 GMT
She said: “I loved following the Euros last year and watching Harry Kane, who's obviously the England captain, and Son, I'm a big fan of him as well. So yeah, I like to dabble." Raducanu is seeded No. 8 in Stuttgart and will face Australian qualifier Storm Sanders in the first round, in what will be her first game on clay in the WTA Tour.
Emma Raducanu
Image credit: Getty Images
Emma Raducanu caused a bit of a stir on Monday after wearing a personalised Tottenham Hotspur kit for a practice session at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix.
The US Open champion is preparing to play her first clay-court tournament on the Hologic WTA Tour in Stuttgart.
"My whole team basically are big Spurs fans and I feel like they're egging me on," Raducanu told reporters at the media day in Stuttgart, with the quotes published by wtatennis.com.
"They're desperately trying to get me behind them. I don't necessarily follow football so much, but I feel like now because of them I'm feeling some sort of connection.
“I loved following the Euros last year and watching Harry Kane, who's obviously the England captain, and Son, I'm a big fan of him as well. So yeah, I like to dabble."
Raducanu is seeded No. 8 in Stuttgart and will face Australian qualifier Storm Sanders in the first round, in what will be her first game on clay in the WTA Tour. However, she did overcome Tereza Martincova on the surface in a Billie Jean Cup victory for Great Britain on Friday.
"It gives me confidence for sure because I played Martincova, who's a great opponent, in Prague, which is her home place," she added.
"It was a heavy clay court. Conditions were cold. So, to get that win definitely gave me a lot of confidence. She's a great opponent.
"It's going to be an exciting clay season. I'm not sure how it is going to go. I keep telling everyone around me that one day clay is going to be my surface and I still believe that."
The 19-year-old is confident that her game will develop on clay and stressed the need for patience when competing on the surface.
"I think game-wise on clay, especially when you're playing outside, you definitely need to be a lot more patient and build the point.
"You can't just hit a big shot. Whereas on a hard court, you might be able to get a weak shot straight away. You really need to build the point a lot more, which takes a lot more energy and physical demand.
"You just have to be more crafty, I think, and I think it's a good lesson, especially for someone younger like me to develop more skills. I'm looking forward to spending more time on the clay as the years go by because I do like sliding and moving on it, and it's just about again being able to repeat over and over."
Raducanu still has to cope with lofty expectations after her stunning US Open victory last year, but remains level-headed in this fledgling stage of her career.
"I definitely went through a lot of situations that I was not expecting and took a lot of adjusting to, and I'm still trying to really figure out what works for me.
"I don't think it's an easy sort of process because I feel like my tennis - I just have like a Grand Slam win under my belt - but everything else is the same. It's just I've got a tournament under my name.
"I don't know how much your game can necessarily change in three weeks, so I still feel like I've got a lot of development to do in my game itself. And although I had three great weeks to build that sort of consistency, I definitely need a lot more time and patience."
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