Emma Raducanu is facing sponsorship uncertainty in the wake of her tearful first-round exit at the US Open, after a demoralising defeat that extended her winless run since 2021’s famous New York breakthrough to three years.
Raducanu broke down in tears at her post-match press conference after a three-set loss to Sofia Kenin, the world No 54 and former Australian Open champion.
The early exit meant that Raducanu has failed to go beyond the second round at seven of the eight grand slams she has competed in since winning at Flushing Meadows, on top of the four she has missed through injury.
Her lack of warm-up matches has come under intense scrutiny following Tuesday’s loss, with even regular supporter Tim Henman suggesting that the Raducanu camp had made the wrong call to skip a month of North American hard-court events in favour of training at the National Tennis Centre in south-west London.
Several of Raducanu’s sponsorship deals are up for renewal this year, as well as her management-agency contract with IMG. The value of any extensions could be affected by her poor record at the majors and her modest ranking at No 72. Since her New York breakthrough in 2021, she has failed to win more than three matches at any event.
Raducanu’s registered company, Harbour 6, posted profits of just under £10 million in 2023. Her prize money for that season was less than £200,000 due to lengthy injury lay-offs, so most of that income is likely to have come from her nine major sponsorship deals with British Airways, Vodafone, Tiffany, Dior, Porsche, Evian, Wilson, Nike and HSBC.
Raducanu admitted to feeling sad and down after her defeat, in which she struggled to compete with Kenin’s power off the ground.
“I’m just going to go back to the drawing board and train and analyse where I went wrong and try to improve for the rest of the season,” Raducanu said after her 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 loss. “Obviously, the slams are over for this year, but it’s not actually that long until Australia comes around again.”
Raducanu also acknowledged that it had been a mistake not to schedule more matches in the build-up to New York, saying: “I would have preferred to probably play a little bit more … I think I can learn from it and manage my schedule slightly differently.”
The same point was made by Henman. “This has all been a rebuilding process when she’s coming back from the surgeries,” Henman said on Sky Sports. “When she has played she has played very well.
“That [the three-and-a-half weeks between Raducanu’s Washington quarter-final and this US Open opener] was a big chunk of the summer to miss. Obviously they were big tournaments and she wasn’t a direct acceptance [into the main draw] but in hindsight she probably should have been in qualifying [at Toronto and Cincinnati] to get those match reps under her belt.
“She’s learning all the time and fingers crossed she’s going to have many more opportunities here at the US Open in the future. I still think her game is moving in the right direction and there are still elements that she can do better.”