Emma Raducanu has admitted she ‘wasn’t prepared’ for a number of luxury sponsorship deals after she sensationally won the 2021 US Open.
The British tennis star clinched the Grand Slam title in New York three years ago as a qualifier, which saw Raducanu attract worldwide fame.
Raducanu was crowned the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year and teamed up with a number of brands after her Flushing Meadows triumph.
But the 22-year-old has largely struggled with injuries ever since – and has hasn’t been able to reach the same levels – with Raducanu still waiting to land a second trophy on the WTA Tour after her fairytale US Open win.
Despite her struggles, British No.2 Raducanu was the seventh highest-paid female athlete in the world in 2024 thanks to her endorsements deals with Dior, Porsche, Tiffany, British Airways, Vodafone and Evian.
Raducanu earned a total of £11m this year, Sportico have reported, with a large majority of that, £9m, coming from her lucrative sponsorships.
‘I’m obviously very grateful and fortunate to have had certain experiences and opportunities – but I wasn’t prepared for it,’ Raducanu said this week.
‘You know, in my head it was like: ‘Okay, I wake up, I play tennis. I go to the gym. I go home and I don’t have anything else to do’.
‘Especially straight after I did really well, for the next few years, it was very much like there was so much communication about things off the court. And I would always, always give my 100 per cent on the court.
Emma Raducanu's £9m portfolio of sponsorship deals
- Vodafone – £3m
- Tiffany & Co – £2m
- Dior – £2m
- British Airways – £1m
- Nike – £100,000
- Wilson – £100,000
- Porsche – Unknown
- HSBC – Unknown
- Evian – Unknown
- Sports Direct – Unknown
‘I was always working really hard but I just think that I wasn’t prepared as well for the other things that inevitably do take some energy out of you.
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‘I think now I’m a lot more structured. I’ll be like: ‘Okay, I have this time where one hour we will talk about business. And now I’m going to train for the rest of the week’.’
Sports finance expert Dr Rob Wilson has warned Raducanu ‘is going tostruggle to renegotiate or renew any of her commercial endorsements’ if she ‘doesn’t start winning games’ or ‘go deep into tournaments’.
But Raducanu hopes to end her ‘vicious cycle’ with injuries after beginning work with Yutaka Nakamura – her new strength and conditioning specialist – ahead of the Australian Open, which gets underway on January 12.
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