- Updates from the opening day at Flushing Meadows
- Get in touch: email Yara with your thoughts
The familiar face of Emma Raducanu is in New York and is “inspired” to be back where she won her first and only slam.
Back in 2021, tennis may have provided arguably Britain’s sporting highlight of the 2020s so far as Raducanu became the first qualifier to win a grand slam with her US Open triumph.
I feel very proud when I come here. Walking past my photo every day. Walking past my name on the trophy every day. I think that is such an epic achievement and these two weeks, I completed it. I come back with such a different outlook. Just joy and pride and it inspires me to want to do more.
We see a lack of standardised and clear protocols. I can understand the sentiments of a lot of players that are questioning whether they are treated the same. Hopefully the governing bodies of our sport will be able to learn from this case and have a better approach for the future. Collectively there has to be a change, and I think that’s obvious.
Many players – without naming any of them [as] I’m sure you know already who – have had similar or pretty much the same cases, where they haven’t had the same outcome. And now the question is whether it is a case of the funds, whether a player can afford to pay a significant amount of money for a law firm that would then more efficiently represent his or her case. I don’t know. Is that the case or not? That’s something really I feel like we have to collectively investigate more.
In the end, they’ve declared him innocent and he’s in the tournament. I think there’s not much more to talk about and at least I don’t have much to say. It’s something that is talked about [in the locker room].