Why Emma Raducanu is shining example to youngsters – Jayne Dowle

WHAT better role model for our teenagers than Emma Raducanu? I could write what I know about tennis on the back of a folded-up Wimbledon ticket, but there is something about the 18-year-old that crosses all sporting and societal boundaries.
Teenage tennis sensation Emma Raducanu is the new darling of British - and world - sport after winning the US Open as an 18-year-old qualifier.Teenage tennis sensation Emma Raducanu is the new darling of British - and world - sport after winning the US Open as an 18-year-old qualifier.
Teenage tennis sensation Emma Raducanu is the new darling of British - and world - sport after winning the US Open as an 18-year-old qualifier.

Her success at the US Open is so much the sweeter for it. While her cross-cultural background has been inevitably hijacked by (mostly male) celebrities such as Gary Lineker to make political capital, we can quietly celebrate the challenge she represents to those who judge by name or nationality of birth.

Born in Canada – her father is Romanian and her mother Chinese – she moved to England as a two-year-old child and showed a prodigious talent on the court, encouraged always by her family.

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Ms Raducanu’s father, Ion, has been a huge influence on her game and she has credited her mother Renee’s family, who hail from Sheyang in China, for their resilience and mental strength.

Teenage tennis sensation Emma Raducanu is the new darling of British - and world - sport after winning the US Open as an 18-year-old qualifier.Teenage tennis sensation Emma Raducanu is the new darling of British - and world - sport after winning the US Open as an 18-year-old qualifier.
Teenage tennis sensation Emma Raducanu is the new darling of British - and world - sport after winning the US Open as an 18-year-old qualifier.

Last year, she spoke of the influence her parents have had on her upbringing. “They have been very tough on me as a kid,” she admitted. “They have been pushy to an extent, not just in tennis but in everything. I think that I’ve developed that mentality since a young age.”

How refreshing to hear a young person speak so proudly of their parents. And how refreshing to hear a honest narrative from a professional tennis player.

As I said, I’m hardly a diehard fan, but I know enough to be irritated by the histrionics and arrogance of certain high-ranking players. The past antics of John McEnroe, for example, who is still chuntering now about whether Ms Raducanu can cut it, have hardly endeared the general public to the game.

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What’s also refreshing is that unless you are a tennis aficionado – watching her progress through the rankings to become the first British female player to win the Grand Slam since Virginia Wade in 1977 – you wouldn’t have heard of her until this year.

Teenage tennis sensation Emma Raducanu is the new darling of British - and world - sport after winning the US Open as an 18-year-old qualifier.Teenage tennis sensation Emma Raducanu is the new darling of British - and world - sport after winning the US Open as an 18-year-old qualifier.
Teenage tennis sensation Emma Raducanu is the new darling of British - and world - sport after winning the US Open as an 18-year-old qualifier.

That she shot like a bolt of lightning into the national consciousness just when we needed her most has given her achievement – she became the first ever qualifier to the win the final of any Grand Slam tournament – a special glow.

In a year when young people have had their lives disrupted and put on hold because of Covid, here she was, rising above it all and giving us all some much-needed hope.

Teenagers, like my two, are impressed that a girl they could so easily be one of their contemporaries has achieved so much, and so quickly. My son Jack, 19, although a football man, couldn’t help but comment on her agility and stamina. My daughter, Lizzie, 15, was more impressed by the fact that Ms Raducanu managed to rack up two A* in Maths and Economics in her A-Levels, attend her sixth-form prom, set the world alight with her back-hand and then end up at the Met Gala in New York wearing Chanel.

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Over the summer, for the first time ever, Lizzie and her friends decided to start playing tennis in our local park, amassing a random collection of rackets and with nothing more than a bare understanding of the rules.

Teenage tennis sensation Emma Raducanu is the new darling of British - and world - sport after winning the US Open as an 18-year-old qualifier.Teenage tennis sensation Emma Raducanu is the new darling of British - and world - sport after winning the US Open as an 18-year-old qualifier.
Teenage tennis sensation Emma Raducanu is the new darling of British - and world - sport after winning the US Open as an 18-year-old qualifier.

I wondered briefly where this sudden fad had come from, and then I realised; Emma Raducanu was wowing the crowds at Wimbledon and suddenly tennis was fashionable again.

If her success at Flushing Meadows can set in motion a new attitude towards girls in sport in the UK, we should all be celebrating. After a summer in which our female Olympic stars also proved their world-beating credentials –including gold medal-winning middleweight boxer Lauren Price, who trains in Sheffield and Leeds athletes Georgia Taylor-Brown and Keely Hodgkinson, who both won silver medals – there has never been a more prescient time to encourage female participation.

I’d love to see our motley crew of Cabinet ministers get their heads together and come up with a plan.

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While no-one would doubt the dedication of Ms Raducanu’s parents, who both work in finance, to developing their daughter’s prodigious ability, there must be thousands of young women – and men – whose natural talent is stifled because it lacks both encouragement and outlet.

On the back of the success at Tokyo, the Government has pledged £232m to help athletes prepare for the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics.

This significant investment in UK Sport will be used to back aspiring Team GB and Paralympics GB athletes, in addition to funding from the National Lottery.

Such significant financial commitment cannot be under-estimated; it will pay not just for coaching but much-needed training facilities and support staff.

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It’s about more than money, though. It’s about faith. And encouragement. And opportunity. All these intangibles are represented in one young 18-year-old girl who has shaken the world. Let her not be the first and last.

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