If you look back to a column I wrote about a year ago, I did have fears that Emma Raducanu’s career was back to front.
It was through no fault of her own obviously.
If you get the chance to win a Grand Slam tennis tournament in the circumstances that presented themselves for Emma, it’s always going to be looked upon as a phenomenal achievement.
She made history at the US Open.
But if you’re going to build a career at the top of your sport, that’s not the way you’d choose.
It’s been a house built without strong foundations.
There would be absolutely no shame if Emma ends up being a one-time major winner.
And if she never hit another tennis ball, she’d be set up financially for life.
But she won’t want people whispering behind her back that it was a case of all the stars aligning for her and that it was a freak fortnight.
No elite athlete would.
She gave us a historic run last summer.
See you soon, @EmmaRaducanu 👏 pic.twitter.com/xzMuLNghcl
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) August 31, 2022
A couple of phrases Emma used after her first-round defeat at the US Open the other day were a bit worrying.
The first one was “clean slate” and the other was not having a “target on my back” anymore.
Both are wishful thinking, I’m afraid.
Although she’s plummeted down the world rankings and will have to qualify for some events again, she will never be able to reset like a ‘normal’ player.
She’ll always be an opponent others will raise their game to beat, no matter what her ranking is.
And the spotlight shining on her won’t dim.
Winning a Grand Slam has done the exact opposite for Emma that you’d want it to.
For the likes of Andy Murray, it proved to be the launch pad for bigger and better things.
Put it this way, if she does manage to win a second, it will be a far bigger achievement than the first.
It’s been so far, so good for Sir Andy.
After a couple of victories, he’s got himself into the tournament.
For a change he’s not in that vicious circle of needing to get games to build up some tournament rhythm but getting a hard first-round draw that doesn’t give him a realistic chance of doing that.
"Physically – this is the best I've felt in the last few years…"
Andy Murray is getting closer to where he wants to be at the US Open 💪#USOpen | @andy_murray pic.twitter.com/4YIi78ECs6
— Eurosport (@eurosport) August 31, 2022
The fact that he’s only dropped one set is a big bonus as well because a five-setter would probably be too hard to follow-up these days.
I get the impression he feels he’s got a run deep into the US Open, Australian Open or Wimbledon left in him.
He certainly isn’t going to retire when he thinks there’s half a chance.
And Ivan Lendl wouldn’t be coaching him again if he didn’t think the exact same way.
I’ve got a nice trip to look forward to next week.
I’m going to be playing in the BMW PGA Championship pro-am at Wentworth.
It’s been a few years since I’ve been able to accept an invitation and it will be great to be part of such a prestigious event again.
The field looks as strong as it has ever been and, with all the LIV Tour controversy, there will be plenty of media attention over the course of the week.
Let’s see if I get paired with one of them on Wednesday!
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