Emma Raducanu has landed many endorsement deals in her nascent career, but there is perhaps one elusive sponsorship that would please the British No. 1 women’s tennis player the most: ambassador of London’s Bromley.
During a roundtable discussion with tennis journalists at the end of an exhausting but satisfying season, Raducanu is just trying to describe a quiet off-season spent at her family home when she finds herself making a sales pitch about the benefits of living in Bromley. “I’m just so settled,” she says. “I’ve hardly been to Britain this year because I’ve been competing so much, but I think it was just really nice to spend some really good quality time with my parents. I loved just being in Bromley. It reminds me of when I was a younger kid and it’s the same bedroom, everything the same.”
“Bromley now has some great specialty coffees that didn’t exist a few years ago. And I’ve been trying every new place. It’s been really nice, and of course so much greenery, and it’s been fun actually. I’ve been traveling by train. So I’ve been part of the rush hour every day, which was also an experience. But it’s like I’m making the switch. As soon as I get on the South Western to Waterloo I think, ‘My day is over now.'”
The inner peace and contentment Raducanu speaks of is hard-earned at the end of a positive, if unspectacular, season in which she took several steps forward. The 23-year-old rose from outside the top 60 to No. 29 in 2025, her highest ranking since 2022. She has played more often than ever this year with largely consistent results.
She has also taken steps to find stability within her team, a glaring problem since the beginning of her career. Raducanu appears to have found a fruitful coaching partnership with Spaniard Francisco Roig, previously a long-time member of Rafael Nadal’s coaching team, and she will start the 2026 season with a new combined physiotherapist and strength and conditioning coach in Emma Stewart, an experienced professional who has worked in tennis and was most recently part of British Rowing’s Olympic medal-winning set-up.
However, in recent weeks the goal has been not to think about tennis. After ending her season in Asia early due to illness, Raducanu spent a lot of time improving her Chinese language skills while visiting family in her mother’s native country, her Spanish at Roig’s insistence, and her French. “I was like, ‘I’m trying to do everything,’” she says, smiling. “I really need rest days from my rest days. It’s actually quite tiring.”
As the 2021 US Open champion describes her language learning odyssey, a member of her team intervenes, noting that he now receives texts from her in French, even though he doesn’t speak the language. “It’s funny because then I just start mixing languages,” says Raducanu. “I say a sentence in three different languages, and I just don’t even know what I’m saying. But I think it’s been great for me to put my mind on something else and be busy and feed my brain. It’s the best thing I can do for myself. And I feel like I’m in a pretty content place, just trying to be a better version off the field.”
In addition to some positive results, there have also been many difficult moments in 2025. Most notably, Raducanu’s encounters with a fixated individual made global headlines in February. Those incidents obviously damaged her self-confidence, with the Brit previously stating that her neck would hurt if she looked down in public to prevent people from recognizing her. “Not anymore. My neck doesn’t hurt as much. I don’t look down as much. Better posture,” she says, laughing. “But I’m like, ‘Okay, what? Are they going to see me on TV?’ It’s not a bad thing.”
The comfort with which Raducanu navigated the city during the offseason has also shown her that she has put the incident behind her. “Honestly, I’m over it,” she says. ‘What shocked me was I saw a photo of myself in London, and I didn’t see the papers [paparazzi]. I was with my two best friends. This happened last week, and there was a tabloid article saying I had a new boyfriend or something. But he’s literally my best friend’s brother. I was like, ‘Come on, guys. Come on. Be better. This is not the case [true].’ I was with my best friend’s brother and we went to see rugby. And of course they took my best friend out. It was just me and this guy, and I just didn’t see the paps. So of course that’s creepy. You know, when you’re like, ‘I didn’t see them. How did they take this photo?’ But apart from that, I feel good because there is always someone looking over me.”
Off the court, 2025 was a contentious and controversial year in tennis. The most recent discourse has focused on the length of the season, with several players critical of the demanding season. However, Raducanu offers a different perspective to Iga Swiatek, Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and her fellow British No. 1, Jack Draper.
“I find that a challenge,” she says. “I don’t necessarily think it’s something to complain about because it’s what we’re given. And we make a good living from it too. I mean, it’s not all glamorous. There are certainly times when it’s very difficult and we’re in trouble mentally and physically, everything hurts. But at the same time, what are we going to do about it? I’m sure there are certain people who go to work and their bosses make them do something, but they have to do it, it’s their job. If we put up a front that doesn’t complain, I think that’s a better example for the people watching, trying to get into tennis, the younger people when they see all the top players whining about the calendar, I don’t think that’s necessarily inspiring to look up to.
The next time Raducanu competes, she will play alongside her old friend Draper in the United Cup, the mixed international team event that opens the season in Australia. Before then, an intense pre-season block with Roig begins this week in Barcelona with the aim of building on the solid foundations laid in 2025, improving the quality of her shotmaking and starting to close the significant gap between herself and the very best players in the world.
“I think I went through some very difficult times at the beginning of the year, both on and off the field,” she says. “But I think I really learned from it, like the power I have to pull myself out. Also what I need to do to keep from falling back into it. A big part of that is spending time studying, spending time learning, spending time feeding my brain and just constantly that’s something I need. Learning about myself has been a great thing. So I feel very satisfied.”
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