Emma Raducanu’s grandmother, 90, stays up to date on the tennis star by checking in with local priest because she has not cable TV
Given her precious talent, Emma Raducanu may have little need of any help from above. Not so her 90-year-old grandmother Niculina. She lacks cable TV and will not be able to follow her granddaughter’s return to Wimbledon action today from her home in the Romanian capital Bucharest. So the devout Christian has enlisted her local priest to give her vital updates on the 21-year-old’s progress.
Mrs Raducanu, whose son Ian is Emma’s father, said: ‘When I go to church, the priest will keep me informed with the latest news on her because I don’t have cable TV.
He watches sports news about her to keep me informed. So he tells me if she is doing well in her games. I also hear the news about her on the radio.’
The widow, who lives in a flat in a Communist-era block on the edge of the city, is called ‘Mamiya’, an affectionate Romanian term for Granny, by the tennis star. After missing last year’s tournament due to injury, the 2021 US Open champion will step out on Centre Court this afternoon to face world No 22 Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia.
Wishing her beloved granddaughter well at Wimbledon, Mrs Raducanu urged her to put her physical health first. ‘She must trust herself and God and she must be careful not to get injured again,’ she said. Yesterday Ms Raducanu arrived for practice at Wimbledon wearing a crisp, white England football shirt, pictured, showing her support for the Three Lions’ crucial match against Slovakia.
The straight-A student, who recently posted pictures of herself at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, revealed that she always planned to take up a place at a top university. ‘I was always a very keen student and so Oxbridge was always up there on my bucket list in life,’ she said. ‘And I think I carry that on whether that’s during my career, after my career, I know that is something that I want to do in the future.’
Her grandmother, a retired primary schoolteacher, has previously told how Cambridge University had offered Ms Raducanu a place after she won the US Open. She is pleased with her granddaughter’s educational ambitions, saying: ‘I am happy she went to Oxford, I also visited the university with her when she was little. ‘It’s a very beautiful city and I would really like it if she decided to go to university… at Oxford or elsewhere.’
However, she added: ‘Right now she is very busy, she is focused on her tennis but has been held back by her injuries. ‘I hope it will be her year but she has had difficult surgeries and the recovery has been difficult.’ The player has suffered problems with her back, wrists and ankle as well as with abdominal stress, cramping and blistering. Ms Raducanu has had surgery on both wrists and her left ankle, which kept her out of action for most of 2023.
