Emma Raducanu: US Open Champion

RobinLFC

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Does she consider herself British/English? If yes, she is. Simple.
I don't really wanna get involved in this pointless discussion but that's not how it works. Even if she didn't consider herself British she would still be British. And if I consider myself British or English I still wouldn't be any of those things. Nationality/citizenship isn't just a *feeling*.
 

Inigo Montoya

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I don't really wanna get involved in this pointless discussion but that's not how it works. Even if she didn't consider herself British she would still be British. And if I consider myself British or English I still wouldn't be any of those things. Nationality/citizenship isn't just a *feeling*.
Eh? How would that work? It's not like some track and field athletes recently switching allegiances to be ale to compete or rugby players. She's been here since 2 years of age.
 

Buster15

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The anyone-but-England Britain crowd are even more cringe in this thread than during the Euros!

Find me a top athlete whose genetic background is solely from the country they represent. You can't because we're all from all over the place. Is Fernandez less Canadian because her father is from Ecuador and her mother Filipino? Absolutely not!
Well said.
Honestly. What real difference does it actually make.
As far as she is concerned, she is British. And that is fine by me.
And if she inspires loads of young people to try and emulate her, then even better.
 

Inigo Montoya

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Well said.
Honestly. What real difference does it actually make.
As far as she is concerned, she is British. And that is fine by me.
And if she inspires loads of young people to try and emulate her, then even better.
This! It was heart warming to see a whole bunch of kids, some from mixed heritage backgrounds being interviewed this morning. I know the media fecking love to play on this stuff( Andy Murray was the same) but I really think she can inspire a new generation.
 

Raoul

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I don't really wanna get involved in this pointless discussion but that's not how it works. Even if she didn't consider herself British she would still be British. And if I consider myself British or English I still wouldn't be any of those things. Nationality/citizenship isn't just a *feeling*.
Surely if she's a citizen and identifies as British then that should be more than enough to be considered English/British ?
 

RobinLFC

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Surely if she's a citizen and identifies as British then that should be more than enough to be considered English/British ?
That was my point. If she's a British citizen then she's British, whether she herself or others *consider* her British or not. Even if she came out and explicitly stated that she feels Romanian and Chinese, she would STILL be British.
 

Redlambs

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feck me, the amount of bullshit around her win.

Two young talented people went out there and entertained us with their skill and composure. Who gives a flying feck about nationality and all that.

This place really is as bad as other social media sometimes. It's not just merely highlighting it when you are perpetuating it.
 

FlawlessThaw

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Beyond taking the piss out of Farage, this whole debate about her nationality is boring me to tears.
 

Rams

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When is she playing her next match? I guess her schedule will need a wee re-thinking.. all the big tournaments will be desperate to get her in the draw.
 

crappycraperson

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That was my point. If she's a British citizen then she's British, whether she herself or others *consider* her British or not. Even if she came out and explicitly stated that she feels Romanian and Chinese, she would STILL be British.
Errrm if she chose to represent Romania due to her father's homeland being same, then she would be representing Romania and not UK (assuming Romanian authorities also facilitated same). Osaka for example has pretty much spent her entire life in US but just that her parents decided that she represent Japan when she could have easily represented US too.
 

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When is she playing her next match? I guess her schedule will need a wee re-thinking.. all the big tournaments will be desperate to get her in the draw.
:lol:

That's not how it works. She gets placed in tournament brackets based on her ranking. She's now #22 in the world and should easily get into every tournament worth playing in without having to qualify.
 

Rams

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:lol:

That's not how it works. She gets placed in tournament brackets based on her ranking. She's now #22 in the world and should easily get into every tournament worth playing in without having to qualify.
I understand your World Ranking determines which tournaments you qualify for, however it’s impossible to play in all the WTA events so they pick & choose..
 

Droid_Repairs

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Would've loved to have seen them claim Sterling, Rashford, Saka, Sancho etc are not really English :wenger:
Well said.
Honestly. What real difference does it actually make.
As far as she is concerned, she is British. And that is fine by me.
And if she inspires loads of young people to try and emulate her, then even better.
Honestly it borders on racism at times. Like, oh I'm sorry, does it not count as GB success because she isn't white and doesn't have a double-barrelled English surname?

There were people in the USA on Twitter sneering that Raducanu isn't even an English name, like c'mon, your entire country was built by people with foreign names.

I would wager that anybody in this thread could take a DNA ancestry test and find their heritage is from multiple countries. Emma chooses to identify as British, it's her choice, and people criticising or trying to invalidate that can get to feck.
 

Droid_Repairs

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I don't really wanna get involved in this pointless discussion but that's not how it works. Even if she didn't consider herself British she would still be British. And if I consider myself British or English I still wouldn't be any of those things. Nationality/citizenship isn't just a *feeling*.
In her case, there was some choice involved though. I agree that nationality isn't a feeling, but, many sporting figures choose to represent one of the countries their parents were born in. I don't know the rules surrounding tennis professionals, Raducanu is a Britsh citizen but I'm sure could have represented China or Romania if she had so pleased.
 
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LDUred

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She has doubtless a feeling of closeness to Canada, Romania, and China and that forms part of who she is. From what I've read she embraces the diversity of her family and is knowledgeable about her background.

It is claiming that she is 'not British' which strikes me as potentially racist, although it may just be a banal a priori assumption based on the facts of her parentage.

Raducanu has chosen to compete under British flag having grown up in this country and that ought to be respected.
 

Classical Mechanic

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I see Eddie Jones is in hot water for criticising her lifestyle after winning the open.

Hard to say isn't it. It all happened so fast she's probably feeling the pressure and weight of expectation at the moment. Something that she'll need to get over.
 

DOTA

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As far as I know she hasn't played in anything that matters since and it'll be a while until she does, so I don't think we have anything to go on.
 

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Is she still the next big thing? Or was it a fluke?
Probably somewhere in the middle. She could go on and have a productive career and win a few more slams, but never become a dominant champ like a Navratilova, Graf, Seles, Williams etc.
 

Lay

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I see Eddie Jones is in hot water for criticising her lifestyle after winning the open.

Hard to say isn't it. It all happened so fast she's probably feeling the pressure and weight of expectation at the moment. Something that she'll need to get over.
Eddie Jones was misinformed with his comments. The fashion shoot or front cover magazine thing, is what he said was the cause of her recent losses because it’s a distraction apparently. The photo shoot was done before the US Open :lol:

I saw someone saying Pete Sampras went a year without winning anything after winning his first slam at 19 and 3 years before he won another grand slam.

It’s a massive readjusting period, more so for Emma as she’s only played a handful of games at this level.

There will be a blip soon I suspect simply because the pressure and spotlight is different. The media haven’t ever learnt about how to treat rising stars so like @Rado_N said, she will probably be torn down soon.

I believe her latest loss was to a player who used to beat her all the time in the juniors too, so it shouldn’t be a massive surprise. Sometimes a player just has your number even if they’re lower ranked.
 

sun_tzu

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I saw someone saying Pete Sampras went a year without winning anything after winning his first slam at 19 and 3 years before he won another grand slam.
So kinda yeah and no...
Sampras won the us open in 1990... he ended the year ranked 5 in the world

He missed the Australian open went out in 2nd round at French and Wimbledon then got to the quarter finals at the us open in 1991... he ended the year ranked 6th

1992 he missed the Australian but got to quarter semi and final in French Wimbledon and us open respectively... he ended the year ranked 3rd

1993 he got to the semi in australia, quarters in France but won his 2nd and 3rd majors with Wimbledon and the us open... he finished the year ranked world number 1

http://www.tennis28.com/rankings/history/sampras.html

I think radacanu would be more than satisfied if she could have the same 3 years sampras had ... to do so would make her a 3 time major winner and world number one at 21

Basically samprasas 3 years were not him winning nothing he was a top 10 player throughout and top 5 player for most of those 3 years... he just didn't win another slam for 3 years
 
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SuperiorXI

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I find the constant tweets about her from BBC sport very nauseating, why don't the media protect young athletes better? All the exposure can't be good so early in a career.
 

Desert Eagle

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Just lost the first set. Not having a great year but people should remember she is just 19 and as long as she remains focused and dedicated, still lots of titles in her future.
 

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Tough match against a Czech teenager. Lost the first set on tiebreak, saved the second after being 4-1 down, crusing the third. 5-1 up now, should wrap it up soon and advance to the second round.

Slow day at work....
 

DOTA

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Tough match against a Czech teenager. Lost the first set on tiebreak, saved the second after being 4-1 down, crusing the third. 5-1 up now, should wrap it up soon and advance to the second round.

Slow day at work....
I'm only listening on the radio rather than watching but sounds like she did very well to win that second set with the kid really fighting hard even after Raducanu came back at her. Hopefully serves her well for the next round. Ideally she'd start better next time...

The Czech girl is supposed to be a huge talent, apparently.
 

FlawlessThaw

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Given Gavin Williamson has a knighthood, I'd say the barometer for getting an MBE isn't that high.
 

Glorio

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I think Andy Murry got his OBE (I think considered a higher honour than the MBE) after his first grand slam so in that regard its pretty normal isnt it
Doesn't mean it's right. That said, I don't recall how early in his career Murray won his to be honest.