Emma Raducanu breaks silence on Carlos Alcaraz rumours with four-word response
Emma Raducanu has responded to rumours of a blossoming romance between herself and her US Open doubles partner Carlos Alcaraz ahead of the start of Wimbledon on Monday
Emma Raducanu has laughed off suggestions of a romantic relationship with Carlos Alcaraz on the eve of Wimbledon. Raducanu will team up with Alcaraz to play mixed doubles at the US Open later this year – and the exciting pairing has led to suggestions of something more between them.
The British No.1 is preparing to face teenage wildcard Mimi Xu in the first round at Wimbledon on Monday. The world No.38 is focused on the match after competing at Eastbourne, but still had to address rumours about Alcaraz in her pre-tournament press conference in SW19.
Raducanu has been friends with the Spaniard for four years and they were spotted practising together at Wimbledon on Friday. Asked if they had discussed tactics for the US Open, she replied: 'No, it was fun yesterday. We were both on court with (water brand) Evian.
'Yeah, we were just getting some volley practicing ahead of New York. Yeah, I'm really happy obviously to be playing with him. Yeah, we had a good time yesterday.'
Later in the press conference, came the question she must have known was coming. Asked if there was any substance in the romance rumours, Raducanu replied with a smile: 'We're just good friends.'
The interview moderator then stepped in to end the questions, prompting a laugh from Raducanu, who added: 'Way to wrap up!'
Raducanu and Alcaraz are both 22 years old and the British star recently explained how they became friends. She said: '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.
'And 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.'
She added: '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.'
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