sport news IAN HERBERT: Cut Emma Raducanu some slack! The weight of expectation is tough ... trends now
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The big build-up was well intended, but you winced for Emma Raducanu as she warmed up for her first grass-court match of the summer.
The Nottingham Open court announcer listed her feats and declared he would have sent anyone predicting them a year ago for 'some sort of assessment of their grasp on reality' before adding that this had sent 'expectations sky high, perhaps impossibly high'.
The teenager in question was simply trying to hit tennis balls with Viktorija Golubic ahead of embarking on a summer in the white heat of domestic scrutiny.
You winced for Emma Raducanu as she warmed up for her first grass-court match of the year
To observe the 19-year-old at close quarters is to appreciate that she is barely more than a girl
To observe the 19-year-old at close quarters is to appreciate what the immaculate social-media profile and blue-chip companies' desperation for a piece of her do not reveal — that she is barely more than a girl.
She speaks off the cuff, with candour and without the pre-calculation and self-regard that we are so accustomed
