"The only difference is my dinners go public" - Emma Raducanu rebuts criticism about giving precedence to off-court activities over training

Emma Raducanu is the face of many global brands, having signed lucrative deals after her breakthrough run at the 2021 US Open.

Frequent injuries and a loss of form may have kept the Brit from replicating the on-court heroics at Flushing Meadows. But she continues to appear prominently in commercials and promotional events for brands that she is associated with.

The youngster remains unfazed by critics questioning her engagement in off-court activities and maintains that tennis continues to be her priority.

In a recent interview with The Times, Raducanu was asked to weigh in on a section of observers attributing her early exit in Doha to her making a trip to Dubai for a public event two days before her match. Laying it straight, the Brit said she had put in hours of training on the practice court and the gym before heading to the event.

The former top-10 star was also quick to point out that her practice sessions are hardly covered by the press, but her dinners are made public.

"Not at all actually," Emma Raducanu said. "I think that I trained [with] three hours of tennis, an hour and a half in the gym and had two hours off in the evening."

"But I don't know, you should tell me what I should do in my off time from 8pm till 10pm," she added. "It's basically like training in Dubai and then having a nice dinner with a lot of people. The only difference is my dinners go public."

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"I don't really care what my ranking is" - Emma Raducanu ahead of Indian Wells return

Emma Raducanu practiciing at Indian Wells ahead of the BNP Paribas Open.

Emma Raducanu also spoke about the drop in her world ranking, saying she was not paying much attention to the numbers.

The youngster said she was more focused on her development and charting a path of her own, adding that things were "tracking nicely".

"At this point I don't really care what my ranking is," Emma Raducanu said in the same interview. "People ask me what it is, I don't really know."

"I'm just focused on my development and my own path because I actually believe that I'm tracking nicely and that I'm developing in a good way," she added.

Taking note of the highly competitive nature of the sport, Raducanu said she was working towards finding ways to get over the line in tight matches.

"The margins between losing and winning are so fine and I think I'm working on those, working on my game, so that's all that matters to me," the Brit said.

Raducanu opened her Indian Wells campaign on a positive note, scoring a straightforward 6-2, 6-3 win over Rebeka Masarova.