by Emma Raducanu’s agent has said “people shouldn’t be malicious” in their judgment of her post-US Open career, which still lacks momentum two months after returning from surgery.
Speaking on the Served With Andy Roddick podcast, Max Eisenbud said: “The girl did everything backwards. She skipped every step. She won the US Open, she went to the next tournament, she didn’t even know where the player lounge was, she didn’t know where the practice courts were.
“I don’t think I’m hard on her or critical of her like any other player [is wrong]. But she is still figuring it out. I think people shouldn’t be malicious.”
Eisenbud’s comments come two weeks after Raducanu attracted criticism for arriving in Doha less than 48 hours ahead of her debut at the Qatar Open, where she was beaten 6-0, 7-6 by Anhelina Kalinina.
After that game, Raducanu said: “I need to practice training outside a bit more because it’s very different. With the lights, the conditions and the shadows, it’s really hard to see the ball towards the end.”
But Raducanu reduced her potential opportunities to practice on the spot in Doha by staying in Dubai – the venue of the previous competition – for four days after her elimination from Ons Jabeur . Towards the end of that stay, she was photographed with model Naomi Campbell at the opening of the One&Only One Za’abeel hotel.
During his interview with Roddick on the Served podcast, Eisenbud described the process by which he worked out the corporate commitment schedule for his first and most famous client, Maria Sharapova.
“I put a line through all the weeks when she was playing tournaments,” Eisenbud said. “Then I put a line through all the weeks before a competition, and the three or four days after. We worked out that she had 16 days a year that would not interfere with her being a top tennis player. We did as many blue chip deals as we could with the best brands, and never went over 16 days. On that 16th day I took Emma and took me to Li Na [Eisenbud’s other major client].”
Despite a ranking still on the wrong side of 250 – thanks largely to seven months out last year following wrist and ankle surgery – Raducanu has become one of the most marketable names in the sport. Forbes recently placed her at Number 4 on the list of the highest paid female athletes in 2023, with an estimated income of £12 million.
During the podcast, Eisenbud described how he benefited from Raducanu’s US Open victory. “We were enjoying the ride until the quarter, and then when she got to the quarter, I said to my team, ‘We’ve got to get our s— together here. This is happening.’ So we had some success with our sales team, who said ‘Let’s try to bring some brands out to the US.’
“A lot of people think that when it happens, we’re just sitting and waiting on the phone. But any brand that is calling us, usually it is not the brand [we go with]. We are identifying the brands we want our clients to associate with. So let’s say we called it Dior and we’re like, ‘Are you looking at this? Why don’t you come out and have a look?’ After she won the final, there were seven or eight outfits waiting for her and she got to pick one.
“The only way I can describe it is that everything was moving so fast. One of the things that was important to me was that she wasn’t leaving a site until she did an interview in Chinese. That opened up another way in which she is.”
Another issue that came up in the interview was the rapid coaching turnover of Raducanu, who has already seen five splits in his short career. At the moment, she seems comfortable with Nick Cavaday, a youth mentor from her time as a junior at Bromley Tennis Center in south-east London.
“I tell myself and I tell them [the Raducanu family], ‘If the media is just ripping you off on who your coach is, when you keep coaches we’re going to be in pretty good shape,’” Eisenbud said. “But that’s how they do it.
“As an agent, do I have to agree to it? I can not. But it seems to work for her. And as an agent we can only try to suggest and say, ‘Hey, this person did it this way.’ But they seem very comfortable in the way they are doing it and I have to respect that. That may or may not change. But she really is a hard worker. And tennis is her priority. Yes, people want to see her do other things. But the way I see her work and how smart she is, I believe she will win more slams.”
