Not for the first time in her career, Emma Raducanu has been the target of nasty social media snipes in recent days.
From the moment she broke through by winning the 2021 US Open, Raducanu was thrust into a spotlight that was always likely to result in a blinding glare of publicity.
Her rapid rise to the top inspired A-list sponsors to jump on board the Raducanu train, with the money flowing in for a young star who was being cast as the new face of the women’s game.
Such inflated levels of expectation were always likely to backfire and that was the story that played out, with Raducanu struggling physically, mentally and technically to adapt to life on the WTA Tour.
The stuttering start to her career after the miracle of her US Open win was inevitable, yet the social media abuse that has flowed in her direction was not necessary.
Some accounts on X have been set up with the sole intention of goading this inspirational 22-year-old, with her each and every defeat celebrated by many on social media who seem eager for her to fail.
Now, amid suggestions that some of the sponsorship deals that were signed when she was at the peak of her commercial powers have not been renewed, those same online trolls are delighting in her failure.
Some of the negative comments directed at Raducanu on social media platforms like X in recent days, after a report claimed she had lost her deal with mobile phone Vodafone were bizarre, but this is nothing new.
Critics have been eager to take Raducanu down since she became a superstar athlete and their obsession with criticising her seems to be addictive.
Raducanu has confirmed she no longer looks at social media, with the deactivation of her Instagram account a few weeks back a sign of the disdain she has for the platforms that give critics a platform to fire negative messages at her.
Jealousy can be the only reason why anyone would celebrate the end of a sponsorship deal, with many critics forming a negative opinion of a young lady who has been forced to take a crash course in the spotlight that few would have relished.
Raducanu might actually be unburdened by the end of some sponsorship deals, as it will ensure she is not under pressure to hit on court targets that may be part of the deals with companies like Porsche and Vodafone.
Yet as she proved with her run to the Mimai Open quarter-finals last month, a fit and focused Raducanu is a threat for any rival in tennis, as she turned on the style with five impressive performances in the WTA 1000 tournament.
Despite her defeat against Jessica Pegula, there were hugely positive signs for Raducanu in Miami, so it was somewhat surprising that she opted to take a break from tennis after her best run since the 2021 US Open win.
Former world No 1 Andy Roddick is among those who have expressed their surprise at her decision to take a step back from the game, as he suggested she should have continued to play in the early weeks of the clay court season to continue to build momentum.
In the latest episode of his always-entertaining Served podcast, Roddick expressed his surprise at Raducanu’s move to take a step back from the game, as he clearly feels she should have tried to build on the momentum she had built up in Miami.
“She just found her form… why is she recalibrating? What does that mean?” asked Roddick. “She looked great. She looked like a top 10 player in Miami. Why stop now?
“I get so frustrated. I’m such a fan of hers. I like listening to her reasoning on things, but you get to the quarter-finals, you are finally getting momentum and then you stop.
“Why put a speed bump in the middle of your season? It just happens over and over.
“You got to the quarters, let’s build. Let’s keep it rolling. I don’t think clay is going to be her best surface, but she is really good on grass. Let’s hope she sticks to the strategy this time.”
Raducanu is reported to be in talks to hire Andy Murray’s former coach Mark Petchey as her new coach following her decision to sack Vladimir Platenik after working with him for just one match in Indian Wells.
Petchey’s arrival would be welcome, as Roddick went on to suggest Raducanu’s constant changes of coach will see many steer clear of working with her.
“Petchey is a great fit. I love Mark Petchey. He has a great tennis game and he is endlessly curious about the game,” he added.
“But based on the churn, she hires people for two days at a time, three weeks at a time. She needs Petchey now. It’s tough to enter into a new agreement and give up whatever else you have going on in life knowing this could be a two-week situation.
“You are narrowing the pool of coaching talent based on you having this quick trigger on firing people. That’s rational right?
“I don’t think you can get any feedback [on a new coach] on an eight-day trial. I don’t even know what you are doing. It’s the craziest thing I’ve heard since the [Denver] Nuggets sacked Mike Malone.
“I hope it all works with Petchey. I hope she gives a coaching relationship a chance to sink in. She is just so good for the game and she is so good at tennis.
“The last thing we want is in four years time having the same conversation that we’ve had for the last three and a half years.
“I think the world of Petch and I think the world of Emma. I think she is phenomenal. I just hope there is a tolerance for something being uncomfortable and not just this knee-jerk reaction to change.”
From the moment she broke onto the tennis scene in such unprecidented fashion, Raducanu has divided opinion, but she has a chance to silence her critics by breakring back into the top 32 of the WTA Rankings and securing a seeding for Grand Slam tournaments with some positive performances on clay courts over the next few weeks.
