Emma Raducanu leaves British tennis icon seething – ‘Are you kidding’ | Tennis | Sport
Former British tennis number one John Lloyd has hammered Emma Raducanu for sidestepping the Billie Jean King Cup. Raducanu’s decision to withdraw when her country needed her did not sit well with Lloyd, who also criticised Jannik Sinner for not playing in the Davis Cup and claimed that both tournaments have lost what made them so great.
Raducanu withdrew from the BJK Cup back in September to focus on the WTA Tour instead, hoping for better long-term development of her game. She claimed she wanted to spend more time working with her new coach, Francisco Roig, much to the annoyance of Lloyd. Sinner withdrew from the Davis Cup in order to prepare for next season – and has recently hinted he could miss the next edition as well.
Speaking on the Mitch Michals podcast, Lloyd said: “To be honest, my reaction was sadness, not because Italy won it, but because of where the Davis Cup has come now. This, to me, I have been saying for years and years, that the Davis Cup has become a bit of a joke.
“It’s managed to get away with it, because when it’s being played in a different country, whether it’s patriotic, you still get people coming to watch no matter what. But you cannot have a competition that is billed as the greatest team competition when you have one player in the top 10 playing.
“You cannot fool the public. You can in Italy because they want to see their own country and they are blessed with a lot of good players. But Musetti and Sinner did not play because of physical reasons.
“They basically said that they wanted a rest and they wanted to prepare for next year. That to me is beyond belief. That’s where the Davis Cup has come now. That never would have happened [in my era].”
Lloyd also hit out at Raducanu’s decision to pull out of the Billie Jean King Cup when he felt she had a good chance of winning the tournament.
He said: “It’s not just the men, it’s the women. Look what has happened in the Billie Jean King Cup, which has also become a farce in that way. Emma Raducanu of Great Britain had a chance for the first time to possibly win it.
“She pulls out of it and says she wants to spend more time with the new coach and get ready for the next season or ranking points. I am thinking, are you kidding me?
“When is it not a privilege to play for your country? Where has the game come to now, where players are saying it’s the end of the season? What it shows is that the Davis Cup needs to change and needs to change radically.
“In my opinion, it should be every four years, but a best-case scenario should be every two years, so that you have a chance for these players to actually put it down on their top priority list and not just when it happens to be convenient in their schedule.
“There is something that has changed in the mentality of players now, and it’s a very sad thing for me to see that Davis Cup now is way down.”
The British tennis legend would say neither Sinner nor Raducanu were aware of the gravity of their decisions.
He added: “I do fault them. I’m not sure whether it’s coming from agents, parents or just us as a sport, that have not got through to the players that representing your country should be the best honour there is in tennis, and it’s not.
“I do fault them for not playing because, for me, they have not got their priorities right. I understand there are all these other tournaments, but these players are in a position where they can demand things now as a unit.”
