Emma Raducanu/ Gwenaelle Trannoy for ES Magazine
(Picture: Emma Raducanu/ Gwenaelle Trannoy for ES Magazine)Emma Raducanu is in bed when we meet, propped up on two plump feather pillows in the Hotel du Vin Cannizaro House, nestled in the Wimbledon park where we’ve been photo - graphing the ES cover shoot. I’d been told she’d gone blonde over the weekend, but no. ‘I was just messing with everyone,’ she smiles. ‘I went into the salon wanting a change and told all my friends I was going blonde, just to see their reactions. They weren’t sur - prised,’ she says, sounding a little disappointed. Given they’ve already witnessed her win a Grand Slam, coming from nowhere to win the US Open, perhaps it will take more than a blonde glow-up to surprise them.
It says something about Raducanu’s measured character that she eschewed going Full Marilyn for a few subtle, barely perceptible highlights around her face. Before our interview I watched videos of her press conferences, where her blunt responses surprised people. Men decades older than her ask the same stuttering questions; her answers are clear and articulate by comparison. Here she is after crash - ing out of Wimbledon in the second round, being asked whether the intense media attention makes it hard for her to progress steadily. ‘I think I’ve been asked that question in every press conference,’ she says evenly. ‘I am 19 years old and yes I have had attention, but I am a slam champion, so no one’s going to take that away from me. If anything, the pressure’s on those who haven’t done that.’ And to the same question in another conference: ‘There’s no pressure. It’s a joke. I’m still 19. I won a slam.’
