{"id":438248,"date":"2026-02-21T17:12:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T17:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/438248\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T17:12:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T17:12:12","slug":"emma-raducanu-problem-revealed-as-brits-critics-are-sent-firm-message","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/438248\/","title":{"rendered":"Emma Raducanu &#8216;problem&#8217; revealed as Brit&#8217;s critics are sent firm message"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former world No 4 Greg Rusedski has declared that Emma Raducanu\u2019s US Open victory has created the \u201cproblem\u201d of \u201cmassive\u201d expectations.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis365.com\/tag\/emma-raducanu\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Raducanu<\/a> won the only singles title of her career to date at the 2021 US Open, where she stunned the tennis world with her victory as an 18-year-old ranked 150th in the world.<\/p>\n<p>The Brit won 10 consecutive matches without dropping a set at Flushing Meadows \u2014 three in qualifying and seven in the main draw \u2014 and she remains the only player in tennis history to win a Grand Slam title as a qualifier.<\/p>\n<p>The 23-year-old reached her only final since her US Open triumph at the Transylvania Open, a WTA 250 event in Cluj-Napoca, earlier this month. She was beaten 6-0, 6-2 by Sorana Cirstea in the final in Romania.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on his Off Court With Greg podcast, Rusedski hit out at Raducanu\u2019s critics as he argued the Brit deserves credit for her result in Cluj-Napoca.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe expectations for her are just so massive,\u201d said the 1997 US Open finalist.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe problem she has is she\u2019s won the US Open, the hardest thing to do as any player: win a major.<\/p>\n<p>WTA Tour News<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis365.com\/tennis-features\/emma-raducanu-prize-money-ranking-points-dubai-championships-2026\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">What prize money &amp; ranking points did Emma Raducanu earn at Dubai Championships?<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis365.com\/tennis-news\/alex-eala-speaks-coco-gauff-loss-dubai-championships-2026\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Alex Eala gets honest about \u2018gap\u2019 to Coco Gauff after heavy Dubai Championships loss<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Want more from Tennis365? Add us as <a rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=tennis365.com\" target=\"_blank\">a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for tennis coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd then she gets to a final in Romania, and everybody\u2019s talking, \u2018Well, she\u2019s lost in the finals\u2019. Getting to a finals or semis every week is fantastic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t care whether it\u2019s 250, 500, 100, whatever it is. It was a very good week for Emma. Let\u2019s give her some credit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After her run in Romania, Raducanu was forced to retire in her opening round match at the Qatar Open against Camila Osorio due to physical struggles. The world No 25 was then upset by Antonia Ruzic in the first round at this week\u2019s Dubai Championships.<\/p>\n<p>Following a second round defeat at the 2026 Australian Open last month, Raducanu parted ways with coach Francisco Roig.<\/p>\n<p>Reacting to Raducanu\u2019s split with Roig on his podcast, Rusedski said that he remained positive about the former world No 10.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m still super positive on Emma. I still believe there\u2019s a lot there, but let\u2019s do it step by step,\u201d the former British No 1 said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe\u2019s done the hardest thing first, winning the US Open. And all the pressure and expectation went on her. Let\u2019s try to win a WTA Tour title at the lowest level and build up from there.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a game of building and getting the joy back for a game. So I\u2019m still super positive about Emma. I still think she has a very bright future ahead of her.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf she can be 100 % healthy and get the right sort of love back to the game, there\u2019s no reason why there can\u2019t be great results there. So I\u2019m on the positive side for Emma.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>READ NEXT: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis365.com\/facts-stats\/wta-rankings-victoria-mboko-eclipsed-emma-raducanu-surge-top-10\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">WTA Rankings: How Victoria Mboko eclipsed Emma Raducanu with surge into top 10<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former world No 4 Greg Rusedski has declared that Emma Raducanu\u2019s US Open victory has created the \u201cproblem\u201d&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390801,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-438248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}