Google News Nick Bollettieri: I was shocked Emma Raducanu won US Open with such ease
by DZEVAD MESIC | VIEW 4873
Renowned tennis coach Nick Bollettieri was absolutely shocked by what Emma Raducanu pulled off at the US Open. Raducanu, 18, won the US Open as a qualifier. Over three weeks, Raducanu won a total of 10 matches in straight sets en route to winning the US Open.
Bollettieri, who owns one of the world's most famous tennis academies, worked with a number of players who became multiple Grand Slams champion and No. 1s. “I’ve worked with 10 tennis players who have been world No 1 and won dozens of Grand Slam singles titles between them,” Bolettieri told the Daily Mail.
“Suffice to say I know what it takes to become a serial Slam champion, and what magical blend is needed of raw talent, work ethic, physical ability, mental toughness, application and unquenchable desire to do better.
Even when you’re already the best. “Britain’s smiling meteor, Emma Raducanu, won the US Open this month at a canter, but can I pronounce her an all-time great in the making? Holy mackerel, no! Sport is so much more complex.
“I was as shocked as the next observer that Emma took that title with what seemed like supreme ease”.
Raducanu was also praised by Boris Becker
“What a supreme feeling: she got a personal letter from Queen Elizabeth.
If that’s not a tribute, I don’t know what else there is to come,” Becker told Eurosport. “Everyone here has noticed: we have a new superstar. But now it starts, now the dance starts. “You have to follow up the performance, and the benchmark is impossibly high.
She’s not going to win every match for the rest of her life. “It’s an open secret: she will become ‘Dame Emma Raducanu’ – imagine that; it doesn’t get any better than that. Then there will be a Sir Andy Murray and a Dame Emma Raducanu – wow!”