/origin-imgresizer.eurosport.com/2024/06/27/image-766b1d5f-b7e8-4f5b-a535-40233bfb0369-85-2560-1440.jpeg "Emma Raducanu ‘unbelievably complete’ and can be a ‘huge threat to anyone’ at Wimbledon – Mats Wilander – Eurosport")
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Emma Raducanu can be a “huge threat to anyone” at Wimbledon this year, believes Eurosport’s Mats Wilander, as the Brit gears up for her first appearance at SW19 since 2022.
Having won the US Open in 2021 as a 19-year-old qualifier before suffering a period on the sidelines with injuries, Raducanu’s career has been on a fairly unique trajectory.
But now she appears to have found consistency as she seeks to better her best result at Wimbledon, the fourth-round in 2021, just two months before her momentous triumph in New York.
Speaking ahead of Wimbledon starting on July 1, Wilander shared his thoughts on how Raducanu has evolved – and her prospects going forward.
“I remember watching Emma Raducanu at Wimbledon just a few months before she won the US Open,” Wilander told Eurosport’s Arnold Montgault.
“I actually had a chat with her coach at the time, and I was telling him that I can’t believe how complete she is.
“She’s unbelievably complete. She can do everything. And then, of course, that was a famous Wimbledon [in 2021] when she had to stop her match [against Ajla Tomljanovic in the fourth round with breathing difficulties]. Then she goes on and she wins the US Open a couple of months later.
“I think it’s really important for us, and mainly for her and for her coach, to look at what she’s able to do today on a tennis court. When I look at her, she’s able to do everything.
“I’m not looking at her as someone who already has won a Grand Slam. That was an out-of-body experience for Raducanu. It was an out-of-body experience for every player that she beat that week because she was a qualifier. So all of the players she beat were supposed to beat her. They lost to the underdog.
“I think Emma has tried herself to say – which is basically what I’m saying – ‘I sometimes wish I didn’t win the US Open’. Well, I don’t think you can say that because you made so much money winning the US Open that now you can afford to go to the tournaments you want to go to.
“You can afford to pay one or two tennis coaches. You can afford to travel with a full team with a staff of however many you want, and that should help her tennis.
“If she is just able to forget about having won the US Open but take the benefit from it, which is the circumstances that she has surrounding her these days and the ability to come back from many, many surgeries, [that] has made it easier for her because she financially is very secure.
EASTBOURNE, ENGLAND – JUNE 25: Emma Raducanu of Great Britain acknowledges the fans following victory against Sloane Stephens of United States in the Women’s Singles Round of 32 match on Day Four of the Rothesay International Eastbourne at Devonshire Park on June 25, 2024 in Eastbourne, England. (Photo by Kate Green/Getty Images for LTA)
Image credit: Getty Images
“Being ranked where she has been ranked the last three years, well, there are no other players [at that level] that are financially secure, but she is. If she uses it the right way, I think she’s going to be back.
“I’m not saying she’s going win Grand Slam tournaments, but I think she’s going to be a threat in many Grand Slam tournaments going forward.”
Wilander, specifically assessing Raducanu’s chances on the SW19 lawns, concluded: “Technically, I think grass might be the best surface that she will play on for her own tennis.
“She’s a huge threat at Wimbledon to anyone. Though winning at home is very, very difficult, but she is so good on grass and on fast, hard courts, in my eyes.”