There are two realities I have reluctantly come to accept: I will never be as efficient as Labour’s 2005 election vote share, or feel as secure in anything as Emma Raducanu does in her backhand down-the-line.
I was thinking about Raducanu’s backhand (not that I need a reason) when the result came through that she had defeated world number five Jessica Pegula at Eastbourne this week. What was remarkable, almost inconceivable, is that this represented Raducanu’s first top-10 win. *Record scratch* *Freeze frame* How did we get here?
Aged 18, Raducanu became the youngest player to win the US Open title since Serena Williams (1997), the first British woman to win a singles slam since Virginia Wade (1977) and the first qualifier — male or female — to win a major tournament (in the history of the world). And she did it all without dropping a set.
To say Raducanu’s triumph came out of nowhere is something of an understatement. It happened before she had even won a single match on the WTA tour. Before she had ever played a professional match on clay. Before she played a tour level three set match. The cart was not so much put before the horse as catapulted into a foreign jurisdiction. Let’s be honest, it was a little bit random too. And without the pandemic, unlikely to occur. The years 2020 to 2022 were a deeply odd time to have any kind of job, let alone be a professional tennis player.
And what followed would charitably be described as bumpy. Raducanu suffered a string of injuries, hired and fired a succession of coaches and generally failed to back up her extraordinary breakthrough moment. As a result, she is currently ranked 168 in the world.
Some observers infer that Raducanu might have been better off not winning the US Open. Curiously, these people tend not to have won slam titles themselves
But some observers go further at this point. It is not often said in so many words — because it is patently absurd — but the inference is made that Raducanu might have been better off not winning the US Open. Curiously, these people tend not to have won slam titles themselves.
It is not that Raducanu has avoided unforced errors. Parting with her coach, Andrew Richardson, with whom she won in New York, seemed at the time a strange decision. But she has also faced criticism for signing major sponsorship deals with blue-chip brands such as Porsche, Dior and HSBC, the income from which vastly outweighs her tennis prize money. As if it is her fault that she is extraordinarily marketable, representing a major tennis market in the UK while also speaking fluent Mandarin.
Sporting narratives seem to demand that breakthrough victories at a young age lead to one of two trajectories: either the player becomes an all-time great or cautionary tale. Raducanu is neither of those things. And at the age of 21, she has plenty of pages to fill.
Perhaps that 2021 US Open title will be Raducanu’s only major win. Plenty of top players never even achieve that. Pegula, a paragon of consistency on the WTA tour, is without a slam title to her name. Would Raducanu be under less pressure had she not secured that dream victory in New York? Sure. But she also wouldn’t be a grand slam champion with millions of pounds in the bank. And as her results in Eastbourne this week indicate, she’s doing OK.
Debates aren't everything - until they are
In a 1976 presidential election debate, Gerald Ford famously denied the premise that the Soviets dominated eastern Europe. Almost half a century on, Sir Keir Starmer could not even object to the charge that he had a secret £2,000 tax bombshell.
The ability to debate is not everything — such events favour skills such as presence, the ability to show (or fake) empathy and those who can skilfully avoid answering the questions. But they are a big part of both elections and governing.
If the polls are even half right then Sir Keir will be doing the PM part of PMQs. What if he’s no good at it? With a 200-seat majority, it probably doesn’t matter. But if things start to go wrong, under-employed backbenchers get restless and the economy fails to grow, it may suddenly matter a great deal.
