The manager of the English Rugby team has urged one of his young players to avoid ‘distractions’ which he believes have sidetracked Emma Raducanu since she won her maiden Grand Slam title.
Eddie Jones, who has been in charge of the lions since 2015, says these distractions are the reason why the British tennis star ‘hasn’t done so well’ since the US Open. Making reference to a surge in endorsements and media attention the 18-year-old has received since becoming the first qualifier in history to win a major title. At her two most recent tournaments, Raducanu lost her opening match in Indian Wells to Aliaksandra Sasnovich but reached the quarter-finals of the Transylvania Open. Overall, she has won two out of four matches played within that period.
“The big thing for good young players is distractions,” Jones said. “The distractions could be the exposure they get in the media, the praise they get, the criticism they get. There can be groups of agents who see this guy as the next big thing.
“There’s a reason why the young girl (Raducanu) who won the US Open hasn’t done so well afterwards.
“What have you seen her on – the front page of Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar or whatever it is, wearing Christian Dior clothes. All that is a distraction around her.”
The criticism came as Jones spoke about Marcus Smith, who is tipped to be a future star of English rugby and was in impressive form during his country’s match against Tonga over the weekend. Smith is four years older than Raducanu and didn’t make his full test debut for England until this year.
“Marcus is grounded, but they all start out grounded. No-one starts with their feet off the ground or they don’t get in the team and they don’t win a US Open,” he continued.
“They all start grounded, but there are a flood of distractions which come in, which can make them ungrounded.”
Amid the surge in interest, Raducanu insists that off-court commitments will not affect her tennis and has made it ‘clear’ to her team that training remains her priority. She currently has endorsement deals with the likes of Dior and Tiffany & Co jewellers. She also recently starred in a Christmas advert for Sports Direct along with other athletes.
“I made it very, very clear to every single person in my team that I was not going to cancel one training session or practice session for any off-court commitments,” she said.
“That was a non-negotiable for me. I wanted to make sure that that is my priority and it is. So everyone is clear about that.
“But it’s just managing my time with the commitments around that. Even if it’s not off-court events or whatever, I’m still doing my WTA rookie hours for example.”
Raducanu is returning to action this week at the Linz Open where she will be the top seed in a WTA tournament for the first time. Granted a bye in the first round, she will start her campaign against either China’s Wang Xinyu or Kateryna Kozlova.
