Emma Raducanu’s representative has denied claims that she has been hindered since her incredible 2021 US Open victory by a plethora of lucrative endorsements, including as HSBC and Vodafone. The British tennis player earned £22 million last year from her Grand Slam victory, which led to other collaborations with companies including Dior, Porsche, British Airways, and Nike. However, since her breakthrough in Flushing Meadows at the age of 18, she has struggled to capitalize on that success, losing more matches than she has won and failing to make it to a final.
“I am aware that people would like to say, ‘She is under pressure.'” Agent Max Eisenbud said The Tennis Podcast, “I believe the pressure she’s under is because she won a great tournament.” She wants to continue winning and to experience that emotion once more. She isn’t waking up and thinking, “Oh my God, HSBC is crazy,” in my opinion. IMG senior vice-president Eisenbud defended the international sports and entertainment company’s handling of Raducanu’s extrajudicial affairs. “The narrative [is] that IMG is bringing in all this money and forcing them to take deals,” he continued. “I know people want to say that.”
For example, we are a rather well-known business. On a commission for Emma Raducanu, we are not living and breathing. We will continue to have lighting in the office. We could have completed a hundred transactions. One hundred. She might be making deals, deals, and more deals. Millions and millions of dollars were left on the table. “That is not necessary. In order to keep the client for a long time, we want to do everything in our power to meet their needs. Although Raducanu’s ailments will keep her from competing in the US Open next month, Eisenbud downplayed the effect of the player’s frequent coach changes on her play. Last month, the 20-year-old broke up with Sebastian Sachs.
Sachs, the fifth coach that she and her father Ian have employed in the last two years.
“All the way through the juniors, they never had coaches a long time, so for them that’s calm waters – having a coach for four to five months and then going on to someone else,” he said.
“It’s probably going to be like that for the rest of her career. I’m not saying it is right or wrong, but that is the way they have done it, and I think it is fine to do things differently.
“We are not sitting in a sport that has a plethora of great coaches – maybe eight, nine or 10 great coaches. Most of the great, great coaches don’t want to travel for 35 or 40 weeks a year and leave their families.
So you have a small pool that are willing to travel and charge very little money, so they keep getting recycled and recycled. That is why you see coaches hopping around.”
