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Emma Raducanu opens on how tennis helped her beat shyness, become more outgoing

By TieBreakNewsPosted on
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Emma Raducanu revealed she used to be very shy during her school days and tennis helped her to open up and become more comfortable and outgoing around people.

12 months ago, Raducanu was considered a promising teenager who could one day win a Grand Slam.

Then the US Open came and Raducanu became the first qualifier in tennis history to win a Grand Slam.

Since then, Raducanu has been constantly in the spotlight and is one the athletes that receives the most attention from British media.

“I used to be really shy as a young girl and playing tennis and beating the boys and coming back when I was losing, that just brought me a lot of confidence,” Raducanu said during a conversation with students from Wolwerley Secondary School. “Yeah, I can say that I’m definitely more comfortable and outgoing now than I was when I was younger, and I think tennis has brought me that.”

Raducanu admits it was hard for herĀ to make friends

“You know how secondary school is. All the kind of friendship groups are formed in like year 7, 8, 9 and they’re constantly changing in the early few years. So if you’re not there and you’re not going to some things or hanging out at lunch, or break, then, you know, you kind of get isolated and forgotten about,” Raducanu explained. “I sort of made peace with that later on, I just went to school to study. But I’d say that not having as many friends from school is probably one of the biggest sacrifices I had to make.”

Meanwhile, Raducanu is preparing to return to action at the Citi Open in Washington.

The Citi Open in Washington kicks off on August 1 and Raducanu will be one of the players that are set to highlight the tournament’s player field.

Raducanu has no previous appearance in Washington so she will be making her debut at the tournament in early August.