Britain's Emma Raducanu celebrates winning against Greece's Maria Sakkari on July 5, 2024. (Photo by Glyn Kirk / AFP)
London: Emma Raducanu is finally all smiles again at Wimbledon after the former US Open champion rediscovered the fun factor that made her the golden girl of British tennis before a stunning fall from grace.
Raducanu routed ninth seed Maria Sakkari 6-2, 6-3 in the Wimbledon third round on Friday to reach the last 16 at a Grand slam for the first time in three years.
Coming hot on the heels of her emphatic victory against world number 33 Elise Mertens in the second round, Raducanu's Centre Court dismissal of Sakkari was a welcome sign she is back to her best.
The 21-year-old admitted she is in love with tennis again after struggling to deal with the aftermath of her incredible rise to fame.
She went from an unknown schoolgirl to the talk of tennis in two transformative weeks in New York in 2021.
Aged just 18 at the time, Raducanu's fairytale US Open triumph made her the first British woman to lift a Grand Slam singles trophy since Virginia Wade at Wimbledon in 1977.
She was also the first qualifier in the Open Era to win a major singles title.
She left Manhattan with the world at her feet, but the problems that have dogged her since provide a cautionary tale about the pitfalls of sudden celebrity.
Raducanu's form quickly faltered, leading to accusations that she was more concerned by exploiting her success with marketing deals than focusing on tennis.
"When I won I was extremely naive. You have to be on guard because there are a lot of sharks out there. I have been burnt a few times," she said in an interview last year.
Injuries slowed Raducanu's progress and surgery on both wrists and one of her ankles wiped out most of the 2023 campaign.
She also cycled through a host of coaches as she searched in vain for the winning formula.
But, having opted to skip this year's clay-court season, Raducanu started the English summer determined to get her career back on track after splitting with billionaire boyfriend Carlo Agostinelli.
Raducanu reached her first grass-court semi-final in Nottingham and then beat a top-10 opponent for the first time, seeing off world number five Jessica Pegula in Eastbourne.
'A beautiful feeling'
Raducanu still needed a wild card entry into Wimbledon after falling outside the top 100 in the WTA rankings.
She has matched her best run at Wimbledon from three years ago and tellingly described the victory against Sakkari as "up there with the most fun I've had on a tennis court"
"I was saying to myself, 'how many times in your life are you going to play in front of a full Centre Court?'
"Winning that match, it's a beautiful feeling and one that I really want to savour."
Raducanu's life changed forever after the US Open success, but the cheerful demeanour and ever-present smile that framed her Flushing Meadows success had disappeared until the last few weeks.
"I'm very grateful just being healthy. It was really painful last year coming here and not being able to compete," she said.
"Now even when I lost a point, I found myself smiling or laughing to myself because I was just enjoying the battle."
Faced with a fourth round tie against New Zealand qualifier Lulu Sun, Raducanu has a golden opportunity to reach the second Grand Slam quarter-final of her career.
Regardless of how far she goes in the tournament, she sees her Wimbledon run as a reward for countless hours of gruelling rehabilitation and time on the practice court.
"After a lot of losses, it's very difficult sometimes to keep working and get back up," she said.
"You have to have in the back of your mind at some point it's going to pay off.
"I've been having so much fun that I really just want to stay. I don't want to go home."
