Emma Raducanu’s agent has praised the Brit for staying in school to complete her education before turning to tennis. Max Eisenbud said the 20-year-old and her family didn’t get enough credit for the decision, which he branded a “missed story”.
Raducanu has been sidelined in recent months after undergoing three surgeries in May and will also miss the upcoming US Open, where two years ago she became the first qualifier to win a Major title. It was part of her magical 2021 season, which started with a breakthrough at Wimbledon.
Ranked at No 338 in the world and aged just 18, she made her Grand Slam debut at SW19 just a few weeks after completing her A-Level exams and stormed into the second week. And Raducanu followed that up by lifting the trophy in Flushing Meadows later that summer.
But her agent believes that the beginnings of Raducanu’s story – her decision to stay in formal education until her A-Levels were done – has been missed out among the ongoing coverage of her rise. Speaking to The Tennis Podcast, IMG super-agent Eisenbud said: “One thing I’d like to add about Emma that I think doesn’t get enough.
“I think after she won, I don’t think her family got enough credit for how they handled her [in] the lead-up to Wimbledon and the US Open wins. Here’s a girl who never went to a tennis academy, who stayed in school – regular school – her whole career all the way until the end.”
Eisenbud – who also managed the careers of Maria Sharapova and Li Na – explained just how rare the commitment to education was in professional tennis. “I can’t remember the last Grand Slam champion who didn’t leave school before the age of 14, who was willing to sacrifice her tennis development to make sure she got her education,” he continued.
“I think we all know the story, she barely played leading up to Wimbledon because she was studying for her [A-Levels]. I mean these are like amazing things that I don’t think much of the British media talked about and I think that’s a shame because I think that was very brave of her parents and her to again sacrifice her tennis development for her education.”
Weeks before her Wimbledon debut, Raducanu had completed her education at Newstead Wood – a selective grammar school. Later in the summer, she received her A-Level results, obtaining an A* in maths and an A in economics.
And Raducanu’s agent also thought it was unlikely that another big title winner would follow the same path. He added: “I don’t see that ever happening anywhere. I don’t think there will ever be another Grand Slam champion again that wins after going to regular school. So I think that story was a miss and I think overall though, the British press has done a pretty good job of following her and writing about her.”
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