Emma Raducanu criticises ‘unfair, misleading’ response to growing list of sponsorship deals | Tennis News

“I think that it is unfair but it’s something I have learned to deal with and become a bit more insensitive to the outside noise,” Emma Raducanu responds to criticism following her defeat at Miami Open

Emma Raducanu has said she’s had to learn to deal with ‘outside noise’

Emma Raducanu has defended her commitment to tennis amid the “unfair” and “misleading” response to her growing list of sponsorship deals.

The US Open champion suffered a frustrating second-round loss to Katerina Sinaiakova at the Miami Open on Thursday night, bringing her hard-court campaign to an end until later this summer.

Following the defeat, some comments on social media again highlighted her growing list of commercial partners.

Porsche announced a deal with the 19-year-old at the start of this week, but the British No 1 insists her main priority is improving results on the court.

“Maybe you just see, on the news or on social media, me signing this or that deal and I feel like it’s quite misleading because I’m doing five, six hours a day [of training], I’m at the club for 12 hours a day,” Raducanu told various national newspapers.

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Serena Williams’ coach Patrick Mouratoglou says Raducanu is on the right track to win more Grand Slams but says that patience is needed in her development

“But I throw out one post in the car on the way to practice and all of a sudden it’s, ‘I don’t focus on tennis’. I think that it is unfair but it’s something I have learned to deal with and become a bit more insensitive to the outside noise.

“At the end of the day, I feel like my days [with sponsors] are pretty limited. I’m not doing crazy days. I’m doing three, four days every quarter, so it’s really not that much.”

Since a remarkable victory as a qualifier at Flushing Meadows in September, Raducanu has found life difficult on the WTA tour.

A bout of coronavirus in the winter affected her training programme going into the new campaign and now the world No 13 will take a step into the unknown with the clay-court season – a surface she is most unfamiliar with – on the horizon.

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Mouratoglou says Raducanu’s coach Torben Beltz’s positive, motivated and non-judgemental characteristics are good for her

New partner Porsche revealed on Monday that Raducanu would be involved in next month’s Stuttgart Open, a tournament sponsored by the German manufacturer.

Before that she will represent Great Britain in a Billie Jean King Cup qualifier against the Czech Republic in Prague.

Raducanu will make her singles debut in the competition across the weekend of April 15-16 alongside team-mates Harriet Dart, Katie Swan and Sonay Kartal.