'Of course I was going to say yes': Emma Raducanu explains her delay in saying yes to Carlos Alcaraz for mixed doubles

Emma Raducanu discussed her upcoming partnership with Carlos Alcaraz in the US Open mixed doubles and explained why she took some time to say yes to the Spaniard. The 2021 US Open champion will join the five-time Grand Slam champion in an unprecedented partnership, vying for a one-million-dollar prize.

The US Open decided to innovate the mixed doubles format this year, attracting virtually all of the men's and women's Top 10 to the mixed doubles tournament – to the detriment of specialists. Jannik Sinner, Aryna Sabalenka, Novak Djokovic, and Iga Swiatek will be on the roster, though one partnership, in particular, has stolen the spotlight: Carlos Alcaraz and Emma Raducanu.

The Spaniard secured his fourth grass-court title at the Queens Club Championships this Sunday, extending his winning streak to 18 consecutive victories. During his semifinals match against Roberto Bautista Agut, his future mixed doubles partner, Raducanu, was in the stands, closely following the match during a week she was out of competition.

Alcaraz acknowledged during the week that it was he who asked Raducanu to play mixed doubles with him, although he didn't get an immediate response from the Brit. "She took a while," Alcaraz said laughingly. "No, not that much, not that much. But obviously she had to ask, and she had to think a little bit. But it wasn’t immediate, so…"

Raducanu returns to the courts this week at the Eastbourne Open, where she is the 7th seed, and this time it was her turn to face the media. The question about the partnership with Alcaraz was obligatory, and Raducanu explained why she took a moment to accept Carlitos's proposal. "I mean, of course, I had to ask my team if they wanted me to play. But for me, when he asked me, I was going to say yes, I just had to kind of go through the formality of asking my coach, so I didn’t just make the decision."

The current British No. 1 spoke about maintaining a good relationship with Alcaraz off the court. "I’ve known him for years and actually in Wimbledon 2021, it was like kind of the first time I started getting to know him, and I had a good run there and then also again in the US Open in 2021," she said. “I remember he was always playing the day before me and I was playing like the second day of the round. And I would see him win and then I would have motivation to win and get myself into that position too."

"And I remember he beat Stef [Tsitsipas] in the third round and it was like a big win, his breakout kind of win on a big stage and it was really cool to kind of, I guess, go through that tournament together and then I kept going through the US Open, but we were staying in touch for the whole time and yeah, it’s nice. We have a good relationship still. He’s obviously overtaken me a lot, but it’s nice that we have that from a while ago."

"I think for all of us, we really kind of value those connections that we had from when we were young because when you become a bit more known or a bit more successful, you just find yourself reverting back to people you knew from a young age because you’re like, that’s a real genuine connection, because it becomes very busy and you have a lot more friends, but the ones that you’ve known for a long time mean a lot more to you."