Emma Raducanu: "Hardly any school friends one of the biggest sacrifices I had to make"
Emma Raducanu (WTA No. 10) answered questions from a couple of students at Wolverley Secondary School.
by Florian Goosmann
last edit: Jul 26, 2022, 10:36 pm
A life as a tennis pro? Is one with downsides. Even for someone like Emma Raducanu. Thanks to her US Open victory last year and the corresponding advertising contracts, she was well taken care of and could comfortably retire at the age of 20. At an age when many others are just finishing school.
And that's exactly what a question/answer game with the Brit was about recently. Because students at Wolverley Secondary School had the pleasure of questioning Raducanu. And of course it was also about the topic of school and compatibility as a prospective tennis pro.
"You're kind of isolated"
"You know how it goes in middle school. All the friendship groups form in seventh, eighth, or ninth grade, and they keep rotating in the early years," Raducanu said. "So if you're not there and you're not going to certain events or hanging out at lunch or recess, you kind of become isolated and forgotten." She later found her peace with it and only went to school to learn. "But I would say that not having that many friends at school is probably one of the biggest sacrifices I've had to make."
If she hadn't tried it as a tennis pro, Raducanu also revealed that she would have gone into finance - her parents also came from this field. She herself chose math and economics for her Abitur exams. "I think I would have continued with that."