Emma Raducanu’s withdrawal from the Italian Open was entirely predictable (Image: Getty)
Emma Raducanu has plummeted from downright brilliant to downright bizarre. A star who has fallen from unprecedented heights, to the kind of lows which leave people questioning if she is now some sort of sporting fraud.
As it stands, Raducanu has had more comebacks than Lazarus – and coaches than Nottingham Forest, Watford and Tottenham combined. In the latest edition of the soap opera that is the professional life of Raducanu, she withdrew from the Italian Open – just minutes after sitting in front of the media to insist she had “turned a corner” in her recovery from the chest infection that has kept her off a tennis court for almost three months.
Having fulfilled her media duties, to avoid a sanction from the WTA Tour, the British No.1 pulled out less than half-an-hour later.
“In the beginning, it was quite difficult,” she had said, “I wasn’t feeling the best physically, and I think it had just been lingering for a while.
“Whereas the last three weeks, I think I’ve really turned a corner and I feel so much better. And that’s a really positive thing for me.
“I feel great on the court. I feel like every day I’m working towards something. The break has helped me feel really motivated coming back, very hungry and happy to be out here training and putting out great sessions every day.
What those reporters made of listening to such positive words, only to then discover them rendered meaningless, is anyone’s guess.
Instead of filling peoples’ heads with cryptic messages, perhaps Raducanu would have been better served telling the truth.
“Listen guys, I’m feeling much better, but not well enough to compete here in Rome, just so you know.”
But on the subject of being honest, Raducanu has turned hoodwinking people into an art form, since somehow winning the US Open as an unheralded teenager in 2021.
Raducanu is edging closer and closer into sporting fraud territory (Image: Getty)
Back then, Raducanu was ranked 150th in the world, but she went on to win the title without dropping a single set. And since then, her fairytale in New York has turned into a living nightmare.
She has lost more games than she’s won, suffered a host of injuries, failed to win another tournament and hired and fired countless coaches.
Wildcards and sponsors invitations to tournaments have become her best friends, which begs the kind of question some people, least of all Raducanu herself, are reluctant to ask.
Was her single Grand Slam win a fluke? A sporting anomaly of epic proportions? A fortnight when the stars all aligned for her to go on and somehow win a prize her actual talents wouldn’t normally be able to justify?
We might never know the answers to these questions. The closest we might get to them is what time goes on to show us.
But up to now, in the intervening years since 2021, said time has suggested Raducanu is a combination of a one-trick pony and busted flush. Someone who has taken flattering to deceive to truly unprecedented levels.