John McEnroe has suggested Emma Raducanu's struggles since winning the 2021 US Open are because she did not have the time to grow and mature by attending university.
Raducanu, 20, was still a teenager when winning at Flushing Meadows and has not come close to reaching those heights again in the two years since. This year she will not be able to repeat her fairytale run to the fourth round of Wimbledon in 2021 due to ankle and wrist surgery sidelining the starlet for the whole grass-court season.
After her US Open victory, Raducanu has not advanced past the second round at a Grand Slam. She is now outside the top 100 for the first time since triumphing at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
McEnroe says the US college system better prepares athletes for such situations, and that coming through the collegiate system might have allowed her to handle her unexpected success better.
"I'm sure if you ask her at the end of her career would you rather have one major or none, if it turns out that way, she would rather win one," McEnroe told the US Sun.
"[But] one of the reasons why I think kids go to college is that it gives them time to grow up and mature so they can handle things if and when something like this happens. So it's more difficult when you're an 18-year-old and all of a sudden your world changes so drastically."
Raducanu reflected on that feeling earlier this summer. "That moment on the court, when I was celebrating, I was like, I would literally trade any struggle in the world for this moment," Raducanu told the Sunday Times Style magazine.
"Anything can come my way, I will take it for what I have right now because this is the best thing in the world. I promised myself that, on the court that day.
"Since then I've had a lot of setbacks, one after the other. I am resilient, my tolerance is high, but it's not easy.
"And sometimes I think to myself I wish I'd never won the US Open, I wish that didn't happen. Then I am like, remember that feeling, remember that promise, because it was completely pure."
Those injury setbacks and coaching changes have led to significant upheaval in the years since. Raducanu remains without a coach since splitting with Sebastian Sachs in June, her fifth coach in less than two years.
Despite being out injured, the former British number one was in attendance at the All England Club on day one of Wimbledon alongside fellow absentee Jack Draper. It is the first time Raducanu has missed her home Grand Slam since debuting as a wild card in 2021.
Once in, she reached the fourth round during her maiden appearance. In doing so, Raducanu became the youngest British woman to advance that far at SW19 in the Open Era.
