- Emma Raducanu won the £60,000 Prime Video Future Talent Award
- She and Jack Draper were mentored by Andy Murry as part of the prize in 2019
It was back in November 2019 that a 16-year-old Emma Raducanu was first pictured alongside her tennis hero Sir Andy Murray.
Smiling widely in her tennis whites, she and Jack Draper – now the British men’s No1 – had just become the first winners of the Prime Video Future Talent Award, with Sir Andy being one of the judges.
Ms Raducanu’s prize was £60,000 in funding over two years plus the services of the three-time Grand Slam champion as a mentor.
Well, fast forward four and a half years, and Sir Andy is now her mixed doubles partner – with Wimbledon officials granting the superstar pairing a wildcard into this year’s draw.
He sealed his partnership with Ms Raducanu, 21, in a late text exchange after being worried she might have been asleep.
Speaking following his practice session for the men’s doubles with brother Jamie, Sir Andy said: ‘We had spoken about it a few years ago during the Covid year but both of us were doing quite well in the singles and it didn’t happen.
‘I was chatting to my team and we were discussing mixed double. I messaged her coach and asked if he thought it might be something she’d be up for doing. He said it was worth asking, so I did.
‘Thankfully, I got quite a quick reply. It was quite late when I sent the message, it would have been after 9pm. She said, “Yeah, let’s do it”.’
Sir Andy, 37, added: ‘It should be fun. I have played mixed doubles a few times when I was young and then the last time was with Serena [Williams]. I really enjoyed it, it’s something we rarely get to do. And to get a chance to do it with Emma… well, it’s my last chance to do it, so it should be good.’
Ms Raducanu, who yesterday reached the third round of the singles with a comfortable 6-1, 6-2 win over Belgium’s Elise Mertens, was asked long how it took her to decide to accept Sir Andy’s mixed doubles offer.
She replied: ‘Literally like ten seconds, I was like, “Yeah”.
‘For me, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I think some things are bigger than just tennis. To play at Wimbledon with Andy Murray, those things don’t come by. It’s a real honour that he asked me.’
Ms Raducanu added: ‘My doubles record isn’t the longest but I couldn’t say no. It’s a dream of mine since I was a young girl, since watching the Olympics.
‘I really don’t want to let him down. I’ll probably be more nervous for that than in the singles.’ Her first meeting with a Murray actually came when she was just nine years old and was with the Scot’s mother Judy.
Then the British Federation Cup captain, Ms Murray was running an under-ten girls’ training camp and Ms Raducanu left a lasting impression on her. Since that day, the youngster was on the radar of the Murray family.
She actually played against Sir Andy twice in June 2020 in two mixed doubles matches at the Battle of the Brits event, winning with Joe Salisbury and losing with Kyle Edmund.
She said: ‘It was great to see how fast the incoming ball is at that level in the men’s game.’
So when Ms Raducanu made her extraordinary breakthrough as an 18-year-old in 2021, first reaching the fourth round at Wimbledon and then going on to win the US Open, Sir Andy was not surprised by her success. He admitted: ‘I have spent a little bit of time around her on the practice court.’
And a month after she lifted that trophy in New York, she was pictured practising with him in Indian Wells, California.
Now she has the prospect of a dream doubles partnership with her idol. Ms Raducanu said: ‘When I think of Wimbledon, I think of Andy. Growing up, that was the generation, the hero I would look up to. Wimbledon is Andy Murray on Centre Court.’
Now she will get to play at SW19 with him when the mixed doubles event gets under way on tomorrow with the British pair taking on Argentina’s Marcelo Arevalo and Zhang Shuai in the first round.