Wimbledon icon cites Emma Raducanu's example to fire 'breakthrough' warning to young British tennis players

Sue Barker, a legend of Wimbledon coverage, recently cited Emma Raducanu's example to send a warning to young talents in British tennis. Raducanu became an overnight sensation after remarkably winning the women's singles title at the 2021 US Open as a qualifier. However, since then, the WTA star's career has been marred by injuries and inconsistency.

Barker, a former World No. 3 who tasted her sole Major success at the 1976 French Open, distinguished herself as the presenter of BBC's Wimbledon coverage from 1994 to 2022. The 69-year-old recently sat down for an interview with The Independent, where she cast her mind back to Raducanu's 2021 US Open title triumph.

"Emma (Raducanu) winning the US Open, coming through qualifying gave her so much confidence," Barker told The Independent.

However, she went on to warn young British tennis players by sharing a lesson she learned from Emma Raducanu's 'breakthrough' at Flushing Meadows four years ago.

"Now is the time we’ll be hoping to see a bit of a breakthrough, but hopefully not too much. I think we learned from Emma that sometimes too much can be too much," Barker added.

Emma Raducanu's title-winning US Open 2021 campaign "was a fairytale", says Sue Barker

Emma Raducanu with the 2021 US Open women's singles trophy (Source: Getty)

In the same interview, Sue Barker went into greater detail about her thoughts on Emma Raducanu's miraculous run to the title at the 2021 US Open. According to the 69-year-old, the feat led to incredibly high expectations from Raducanu, who was only 18 when she stunned Leylah Fernandez in the final at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

"I think everyone expects too much from Emma. It was a fairytale, whatever you want to say – a qualifier coming through to win a grand slam, it should be a Hollywood movie. And yet everyone thinks that because she’s done that, she’s now going to be top 10. It doesn’t work like that – she wasn’t a top-10 player (when she won), she’d hardly played the game," Barker said.

Emma Raducanu is currently preparing for her campaign at the 2025 Wimbledon Championships. Her most recent competitive outing came in the second round of the Lexus Eastbourne Open, where she suffered a three-set loss to Maya Joint.

Last year, Raducanu made a promising run at the prestigious grass Major, reaching the fourth round as a wildcard. Unfortunately for the Brit though, her run was cut short in the fourth round by qualifier Lulu Sun. The chastening result came in the aftermath of Raducanu's controversial last-minute withdrawal from mixed doubles action partnering Andy Murray.