The smile, the grace, and the Chinese mum that gave Raducanu the self-belief to be a champ (and pocket millions).

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I always look to the parents when analysing the success of a child. Were they tough? Were they driven? Were they empathetic? What brought out the best in their child?

For Emma Raducanu she is quite clear what gave her the edge; It was her mother’s Chinese background.

Raducanu’s mother comes from Shenyang, a city of 9.2million in the north east of the country.

Emma told Vogue magazine; ‘’ My mum comes from a Chinese background, they have a very good self-belief.

‘’It’s not necessarily telling everyone about how good you are, but it’s about believing it within yourself. I really respect that about the culture’’.

Mum Dong Mei Zhai, known as Renee, moved to Canada where she met husband Ian a Romanian. When Emma was only two the couple moved to Bromley, South east London.

Pushed by her parents to try different sports, she often found herself the only girl in the group.

She said; ‘’When I was younger, I was the only girl in the group doing karting or doing motor-cross and I thought it was pretty cool.

‘’For example one time, my motor-cross teacher was like, right, we’re going to do press-ups. I was the only one who could do it, so I was really proud of myself.
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‘’When I started playing tennis the whole squad I was in was all boys. It was quite intimidating.’’

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​Dad Ian always had high hopes for Emma. Due to covid they couldn’t go to the US for the tennis but after winning she called her dad who said; ‘’You’re even better than your dad thought.’’ Tough to please but the journey proved him right.

Thanks  to her family background she can speak Mandarin fluently which opens China to her commercially. That will not have been achieved by any other Western sportswoman.

Sports marketing experts are united about one thing; she is going to a very rich woman even if she only ever wins one grand slam event.

On Friday morning she had 600,000 followers on Instagram but by last night that number had hit 1.4million. She still has some way to go to hit Serena Williams’s 13.6million but already Emma could charge £100,000 for just three posts on her feed.

Her marketing future is being handled by Max Eisenbud who oversees the tennis division for the sports and entertainment agency IMG.

He takes credit for making Maria Sharapova, the former world No.1, £234million in off-court activities.

With her smile, her talent, her good looks and grace I imagine Emma will make even more. I do hope so.
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