Former US Open winner Emma Raducanu set the record straight on rumours of a romantic relationship with Carlos Alcaraz before the start of the 2025 edition of the Wimbledon Championships in London. The speculations, which have long been on social media, peaked after the US Open revealed that the two have been paired up for the new-look mixed doubles event later in August this year.
Ahead of the start of Wimbledon, Raducanu, who will take on teenage wildcard Mimi Xu in the first round on Monday, was seen practicing with Alcaraz on Friday. When asked if the practice had them discussing 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 same press conference, she was asked to address the social media rumours about her relationship with Alcaraz, and Raducanu replied with a smile: “We’re just good friends.” Following the response, the interview moderator interrupted to end the media conference, leaving the Brit in splits as she laughed and said: “Way to wrap up!”
Former WTA world No. 7 Danielle Collins did not seem impressed with the response as she poked fun at Raducanu, calling her “heartbreaker.” Responding to the clip on Raducanu’s reaction, she wrote: “Brutal!! @emmaraducanu such a heartbreaker.”
In a separate interview earlier this month, Raducanu explained how she and Alcaraz became friends after Wimbledon 2021.
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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