Emma Raducanu writes ‘get a grip’ as Brit takes break from tennis before US Open

Emma Raducanu divided opinion with her US Open preparations after skipping two qualifying events in Canada and Cincinnati.Instead, the Brit flew home to keep training before returning to New York. The 2021 US Open winner shared a photo dump to Instagram, chronicling her time back in the UK. She captioned it: “get a grip.”

Raducanu posted several snaps from a trip to Oxford, finishing off the carousel with a mirror selfie in the gym. It’s not the first time the 21-year-old has been in the city ahead of a Grand Slam, she also visited with fellow British tennis star Fran Jones ahead of Wimbledon earlier this year.

The pair struck up a friendship after becoming Billie Jean King Cup teammates in April. Touching on their visit to Oxford, Jones previously said: “It was just a bit spontaneous really, we felt like going and we love coffee so some great little coffee spots. It was just a good opportunity for a day off.

“I think sometimes tennis is consuming and it’s important that you can have that vision for your career afterwards and sometimes keeping in touch with it. So that when you do come back in here, you’re ready to go again instead of everything else being drowned out.”

The day off was valuable for Raducnau going into Wimbledon. She reached the second week of her home Grand Slam tournament, upsetting No. 9 seed Maria Sakkari en route. And she will be hoping for the same pay-off at the US Open.

But Raducanu’s North American summer schedule has already sparked a debate. She skipped the Olympics to go straight to the hard courts – a decision which caused a stir in itself. She proved the doubters wrong, reaching the Washington quarter-final in the same week.