Why the British star believes Emma Raducanu could be the ‘Wimbledon breakout story’ – Tennis Tonic

Former British tennis player Laura Robson believes Emma Raducanu will be the breakout star at Wimbledon this year as everything is set for the 21-year-old to succeed at The All-England Club.

After years of injuries, Robson announced her retirement from professional tennis two years ago at the age of 28. Since then she has served as tournament director of the Nottingham Challenger and a WTA 250 event in Nottingham. Robson got to watch Raducanu’s first grass tournament of the year up close because of her involvement.

Raducanu defeated Ena Shibahara and Daria Snigur in back-to-back sets to start her campaign in Nottingham, with Francesca Jones giving her an outright victory in the quarter-final. Raducanu, competing in her first WTA semi-final since October 2022, narrowly lost to Katie Boulter.

Raducanu expressed plenty of optimism about her run even after the defeat, and Robson thinks this means Nottingham won’t be the 2021 US Open champion’s only win this summer.

Robson recently said of Raducanu: “I think Emma Raducanu will have the moment of the tournament. Watching her last few games in Nottingham, she was playing well and was excited to be there. She won the first match, then came up to me and said, ‘Can I play tomorrow?’ as soon as she was done. She said, “Just let me be there.” It’s probably been a while since I felt that kind of excitement from her.

Emma Raducanu in 2024

Now the world no.165, Emma played her last match at 16^e of June when she capitulated to world number 31 Katie Boulter 6-7(13) 6-3 6-4 in the semi-final in Nottingham (draw).

Currently, the Brit has a win-loss record of 11-8 this year. Emma Raducanu’s final run in Nottingham was the best performance of her season.