Genie Bouchard sends ‘I feel you’ message to Emma Raducanu after sponsor criticism | Tennis | Sport
Genie Bouchard has reached out to Emma Raducanu to tell the teenager she “feels her” after claims that Raducanu wasn’t “focusing on tennis”. The world No 13 recently hit back at critics who claimed her early losses were down to her brand ambassador deals with companies like Dior and Tiffany & Co.
Raducanu became an overnight sensation when she won the US Open aged just 18 last year, making her the first qualifier in history to lift a Grand Slam title. With her rise in prominence came a series of sponsorship deals, and the Bromley local has since become a brand ambassador for the likes of Dior, Porsche, British Airways, Evian and Tiffany & Co.
The US Open was just Raducanu’s fourth-ever professional tournament and her win allowed her ranking to skyrocket up to gain entry into all of the events on the WTA Tour. The 19-year-old is now competing in her first full season as a professional and has struggled to string together more than a couple of victories in a row, winning four of her 10 matches since.
It has seen her draw criticism from those who believe her new brand deals are serving as a “distraction” and the teenager recently hit back at the claims. “I’m training five or six hours a day, I’m at the club 12 hours a day. But I put one post in the car on the way to practice and all of a sudden I don’t focus on tennis,” the world No 13 said.
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Bouchard suffered a dip in her form and results in 2015, a year after her career-best season, whih was worsened when she suffered a concussion during her run to the US Open fourth-round after slipping in the locker room, which forced her to pull out of the Grand Slam and subsequent events. She later sued the United States Tennis Association over the incident and the parties came to a settlement in 2018.
She found her form once more in 2020 and 2021, reaching her first finals in more than four years and having her best Grand Slam showing at the 2020 French Open, where she lost to eventual champion Iga Swiatek in round three. But she unerwent shouler surgery later in 2021 and has been commentating for Tennis Channel since, with her ranking slipping while she recovers.
