Emma Raducanu attended her first-ever rugby match on Saturday as England faced New Zealand at the Twickenham Stadium. The match ended with the home side tied 25-25 with the All Blacks.
The 20-year-old posted a few pictures and a video of her first experience of watching a rugby match live in the stadium. In the video, she can be seen celebrating after England successfully converted a try.
"First rugby game … soooo here for it !!" Raducanu's caption read.
Another person who was in attendance at the Twickenham Stadium was Women's Rugby star Jessica Breach, who later handed Raducanu an England jersey.
"She was very hard working and did not see her skip a lot of things" - Dmitry Tursunov on Emma Raducanu
Emma Raducanu's former coach Dmitry Tursunov recently spoke to Sportskeeda and said that the Brit had her nose to the ground from Day 1 of their three-month association.
The Russian, who now coaches Belinda Bencic, also said that there was no aura of a diva or superstar about the 2021 US Open champion
"Honestly, I did not see or feel that there were lots of outside things going on. From the time that we started, Emma just really had her nose to the ground. She was very hard working and did not see her skip a lot of things. There was no aura of diva or superstar about her and I think she has been managing that part very well. I was super impressed with her and couldn’t be happier with the way she is as a professional athlete," he said.
Tursunov added that while Raducanu has the ability, she needs to improve her game to perform consistently at a high level.
"I have never won a Slam so I don’t know what it’s like to defend a Grand Slam. So I think she has done quite well in that sense. Honestly, the expectations of her repeating it were extremely unrealistic and anyone who understands anything about tennis would agree to that. It's not because she doesn't have the abilities. She has the ability but the game needs to be just improved to have that consistency to play at the high level," he explained.
Emma Raducanu finished her 2022 season with 17 wins from 36 matches. She reached the Top 10 of the WTA rankings before suffering a huge drop following her first-round exit at the US Open. The 20-year-old is currently ranked World No. 74.
