Emma Raducanu has confessed that the World Cup achievements of Kylian Mbappe and Lionel Messi have acted as encouragement in her attempt to triumph again this year.
Despite suffering an ankle injury in a pre-Australian Open warm-up, the previous US Open champion said that she is fit to participate in the opening Grand Slam of the year.
Messi’s pursuit of the World Cup championship served as her inspiration.
The globe-trotting British No. 1 concluded 2022 by flying to Qatar to see Novak Djokovic compete in the World Cup final. And the Spurs fan finally saw a decent game, gaining crucial insight on how to operate under pressure.
“It was extremely wonderful to see Messi and Mbappe go head-to-head,” she remarked.
“Incredible was what Mbappe managed to do in the championship game. I’m ecstatic for Messi since he just completed it flawlessly. It was quite impressive to watch how they controlled the platform and the occasion.”
“I believe you can learn from how they responded, how they kept going, and how they took penalties under pressure.”
“That was quite a sight to see.”
Raducanu was the sole tennis celebrity there, having flown in after performing in an exhibition match in Abu Dhabi. Djokovic was the second competitor. She commented that meeting him was very great. He spoke with me for some time, mostly about tennis.
After capturing the US Open in 2021, Raducanu has had no unique ideas. Covid had little time to get ready for her inaugural Grand Slam as a Major champion, and she was afflicted by breaks in the skin before her second-round loss.
This time, when she hurt her left ankle in Auckland, she got worried claiming that she might miss the tournament in Melbourne and cried her way off the court.
The world’s No. 75 tennis player said, “You’re certainly concerned about the injury at the moment.”
“But we’ve been working really hard.”
“It took a group effort to bring me to this point. Yet, I don’t believe I’ve played a great deal of tennis in my career, so I’m not too concerned about my lack of tennis experience.”
