Emma Raducanu has been opening up on her journey in tennis during her press appearances in Eastbourne and she made more revealing comments after her hugely impressive win against former US Open champion Sloane Stephens.
Raducanu turned on the style on her Devonshire Park debut, producing a string of eye-catching winners to triumph 6-4 6-0 in a big-hitting first-round battle of former Flushing Meadows champions.
The 21-year-old, who missed the entire grass-court season last year due to wrist and ankle surgery, wrote “my own pace” on a television camera after making an impressive statement ahead of Wimbledon.
“I’m going to do things on my own time,” said Raducanu, who has been given a wildcard to compete at the All England Club next week.
“I’m in no rush to do anything and everything I am doing and playing for now is for myself.
“Whether that’s tournament scheduling, whether that’s how much time I take off to train compared to compete, I think I’m just way more focused on my own lane and less susceptible to outside opinions or views.
“I’m just enjoying it, just doing everything for myself and really just being independent out here.”
Having opted to sit out Roland Garros, Raducanu built on her recent run to the semi-finals of the Nottingham Open with a victory she ranked among the best of her grass-court career.
The world number 168, who was later joined in round two of the Rothesay International by British number Katie Boulter, will next face American second seed Jessica Pegula.
Raducanu admits to previously feeling compelled to compete at every opportunity in the aftermath of clinching grand slam glory aged just 18.
“It’s pretty natural becoming a different person overnight almost with the circumstances, not necessarily myself, at such a young age,” she said.
“It’s easier to get caught up in it and at one point I was chasing playing too many tournaments and then I was just picking up niggle after niggle in every tournament because I never really gave myself any time to do the training.
“That is something I’ve done a lot better this year.
“Even though I might get challenged or questioned for not playing certain tournaments, like the French Open or the Olympics, that is just part of it, doing things at my own speed and how I want to, rather than how everyone else thinks is best for me.”
She was then asked whether the impressive nature of her display against Stephens justified her approach to ignoring her critics and playing a schedule that suits her.
“I would say the matches kind of help with, like, not necessarily confirmation, but it’s just nice to see the reward,” she stated.
“I would say, because I take a lot of confidence from practice, which is why I think this year especially I have rushed less, played less, chased less, and it’s been working out for me, especially in this middle section of the year.
“I think the most important thing for me is just playing when I’m ready, when I’m fresh, and when I want to, because there have been certain tournaments where I didn’t necessarily want to play, and it’s kind of showed in my game.
“I would say I’m pretty expressive. You can see when I’m, you know, very happy and excited, and you can see the opposite too. So I think that is just mainly picking my moments and smart scheduling for me.”
Raducanu now faces a huge test as she will play world No 5 Jessica Pegula in her next match, yet when this young player gets into the zone, she is hard to stop.
“I would say the second set was really high-level,” she added. “I think I played really, really well. Just, yeah, did everything pretty well, I’d say. It went pretty quick.
“It was very important to get that first set, because the dynamics of how the match can play and how the opponent kind of reacts to you can shift because I think in the second set there were a few balls where, in the first set, Sloane might have got to them and played a really good shot, and in the second set, not so much.
“I think my best performance on this surface was probably when I played the third round at Wimbledon and then probably the second round at Wimbledon, and this was probabl third.”