Emma Raducanu is ready to show she is a real “feisty” fighter on her return to the US Open after claiming: “In the past I was always playing a role.”
The Bromley star became the first-ever qualifier to win a Major when she triumphed here in 2021 as a teenager.
Her career since has been beset by poor form and injuries and she missed the final Major of the season last year after undergoing wrist and ankle surgeries.
Raducanu, now 21, claimed she had “rekindled” her love for tennis before the grasscourt season.
And after playing only one event since Wimbledon, the world No.71 wants to put on a passion play off-Broadway at Flushing Meadows.
“I just play so much better when I’m happy and putting my personality out there,” Raducanu said. “I think I’ve been playing a lot freer in the last month.
“I have been expressing myself, I’ve been fighting and there has been a lot of passion, I’ve been feisty. And that’s me. I’m really tenacious and gritty.”
“I think in the past I was always playing a role and sometimes I wasn’t enjoying certain moments freely and carefree.
“I’m a lot better now at just expressing myself. I just feel a real fire back and desire. I’ve got that spark back which is what I’m most pleased about.”
Raducanu, who plays fellow Grand Slam winner Sofia Kenin in the first round on Tuesday, is learning the piano and loves art.
“I would consider myself an artist, because even playing tennis, we’re pretty much entertainers,” she told the Sky Sports Editions series: “It’s almost like playing the piano when we’re on the court, it’s how we express ourselves.”
Raducanu named Pablo Picasso’s Girl Before A Mirror – on display in New York’s Museum of Modern Art – as her favourite picture.
“I feel like it’s really relatable because the girl who is looking in the mirror is a lot lighter than the reflection that is coming back,” she said. “I think that at times in my life I’ve felt that way.”
Episode nine of Sky Sports Editions is available to watch on Sky Sports YouTube. You can watch the US Open exclusively live on Sky Sports and streaming service NOW from 26 August.
