Emma Raducanu’s Wimbledon headache looms with blockbuster Andy Murray partnership
After a bumpy three-year road littered by potholes of unbearable expectation and injury, the Emma Raducanu bandwagon has finally hit smooth terrain at Wimbledon.
Injury-free and seemingly more carefree than at any point since that 2021 US Open title, experts – including Tim Henman – have suggested that she could be second-week material.
But Raducanu’s surprise acceptance of an invitation to pair her hero Andy Murray in the mixed doubles will introduce a new element to the fortnight.
The 21-year-old had talked of the “mental and emotional” burden of the tour just three months ago. Now she finds herself preparing on two fronts, with the possibility that she might have to rearrange her practice schedule to accommodate her commitments with Murray.
Talk of Raducanu as a potential singles finalist is ridiculously premature despite a comprehensive victory in her second-round encounter with Elise Mertens. But you have to be in it to win it, and there are precious few examples of players experiencing success in both singles and mixed doubles in Wimbledon history.
The peerless Martina Navratilova was the last to win both in the same year, climbing the mountain in 1985, having paired with Paul McNamee. She took the singles title again the following year but lost in the final of the mixed doubles with Heinz Günthardt.
The only other women in history to pull off that particular double was Ann Jones in 1969 (doubles with Fred Stolle) and Billie Jean King in 1973 (doubles with Owen Davidson).
Several have tried and failed since. If we dial down our expectations to deep runs in both events, we could point to singles quarter-finalist Mary Pierce winning the mixed doubles with Mahesh Bhupathi in 2005, or Yaroslava Shvedova in 2016 reaching the quarter-finals in singles and a semi-final in the mixed in 2016. This particular double has proved too tall an order even for Serena Williams, who won the mixed in 1998, four years before she won her first Wimbledon singles title.
Fans, however, will understand why Raducanu was quick to accept when she received the text message from Murray. They have been drawn against El Salvador’s Marcelo Arevalo and China’s Shuai Zhang – with Zhang coming in on a record-equalling 21-match losing streak as a singles player.
‘I feel a lot more comfortable this year’
Refreshed by a recent trip to Oxford University, and free from the injury issues that have dogged her, Raducanu told reporters ahead of these Championships that she felt released from the “stress” and “chaos” of the last few years.
She came into Wimbledon with four grass-court wins behind her, including one over Jessica Pegula – the world No 5 – that represented her first success against a top-10 opponent.
“I feel a lot more comfortable this year,” Raducanu explained. “There’s a lot less going on. There’s a lot less stress or chaos. I’m more just coming here, doing my practice, playing the match.”
That new laid-back demeanour has been in evidence on the show courts as Raducanu showed her star quality on Monday and again on Wednesday, advancing into the third round of a major tournament for the first time since her 2021 US Open triumph.
But now, in accepting the chance to pair with her hero, British fans can only hope that the stress-free attitude remains. Could Raducanu have bitten off more than she can chew?
