Emma Raducanu says she deleted Instagram, WhatsApp off her phone and is 'very content without it'

ByEurosport

Published 10/03/2023 at 09:53 GMT

Emma Raducanu rose to stardom after winning the US Open in 2021 as an unseeded qualifier. But it has been a difficult journey since as she has had to deal with numerous injuries alongside managing her rise to fame. After the 20-year-old progressed to the second round of Indian Wells on Thursday, the world No. 77 revealed she had deleted Instagram and WhatsApp off her phone.

Emma Raducanu says she has been taking a break from social media since her exit at the Australian Open to fully focus on her tennis.

Raducanu is through to the second round at Indian Wells after a 6-2 6-3 win over Danka Kovinic in her first competitive match since exiting the Melbourne Grand Slam at the second-round stage to Coco Gauff in January.

In February, Rio 2016 Olympic champion Monica Puig urged the Brit not to focus on social media and that is exactly what Raducanu has been doing.

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After her convincing straight-sets victory over Kovinic, Raducanu said: "After the AO [Australian Open] I deleted WhatsApp and Instagram off my phone, and after that, I've been living under my own little rock.

"I felt like sometimes you go through patches where you just want to zone in on yourself, and I was very content with my life without it.

"I've learned regardless of what you do, if you do good, if you do bad, people are going to come at you regardless."

World No. 1 Iga Swiatek has recently spoken of the pressure she receives from social media for her to perform at her best.

After losing to Barbora Krejcikova in the Dubai final at the end of February, Swiatek wrote a message which mentioned: "I can see that some of you have higher expectations of me, but well… I’m just human."

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Raducanu has endured a disrupted start to 2023. The 2021 US Open champion has been battling with a bout of tonsillitis and a recurring wrist injury, which has seen her out of competitive action since the Australian Open.

The British No. 1 admits that she decided to play her first-round match at Indian Wells only 20 minutes before the start of play.

"I didn't feel too good this morning [Thursday]," she told BBC radio. "I'm just so happy with the way I fought and dealt with the circumstances.

Emma Raducanu of Great Britain celebrates her victory over Danka Kovinic of Montenegro in the first round of the BNP Paribas Open on March 09, 2023 in Indian Wells, California

Image credit: Getty Images

"I just woke up feeling not great, to be honest. I felt quite ill so I'm just happy to have played the match and then to win it, despite how I felt today.

"Today, before the match, I did not warm up. Two minutes before I was called I was sleeping in the treatment room, so I'm just proud to have got out there and then won."

Raducanu will next play Poland's Magda Linette at the WTA 1000 tournament.

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