Emma Raducanu makes desperate appeal ahead of return to action at Transylvania Open

Queen stayed up late to watch Emma Raducanu win says Levin

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The Bromley teenager achieved instant worldwide fame with her shock win in New York last month. Emma Raducanu has since lost in the first round at the BNP Paribas Open in California and is now playing in her father Ian’s homeland of Romania without a coach.

And before her first match in Europe as a Major champion, the 18-year-old said she needed more time to adjust to the higher altitude after her rapid rise up the rankings.

“I don’t think there is any pressure on me,” she insisted.

“I feel like everyone should just be a little patient with me. I am going to find my tennis, I just need a little bit of time.

“I kinda went from zero to the top of the game!

JUST IN: Emma Raducanu could face idol Simona Halep at Transylvania Open

“Although things have happened rather fast. I am learning a lot. The biggest thing is to be patient with myself because basically from my rankings, I skipped a bunch of girls I learned with.

“Normally you work your way in, play your way into the game. I basically went from the 25s to playing Masters and 500s and 250s.

“So, it’s obviously going to take some time to adjust and adapt but hopefully with some good work, I will be able to do that.

“Patience is key. There are a lot of lows, where you learn about your game and that not everything goes smoothly. You adjust to each level gradually.”

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The British No 1 lost her first match as a Grand Slam champion to world No 100 Aliaksandra Sasnovich in Indian Wells.

“My reflection on the performance was that I was quite tired and I think I was still a bit jetlagged,” she said. “I am bouncing back and hopefully I will have a good week this week.”

Raducanu faces world No 123 Polona Hercog, the Slovenian who lost to Coco Gauff at Wimbledon in 2019 and has won only four matches this year.

And the world No 23 said: “New York was a great experience but I am trying to look ahead. You just need to move on. It was great while it lasted but now I am looking ahead and I want to get better. The exciting thing is I still feel I have a lot of room to improve. I am really enjoying my tennis right now.”

Raducanu is scheduled to meet top seed and her childhood idol Simona Halep in Saturday’s semi-final. “Of course I would like to play her but that is so far ahead,” said the British No 1.

The Romanian, who turned 30 last month, enjoyed a much slower journey to the top of tennis and won her first Grand Slam title at the 2018 French Open in her 35th attempt.

“She is super nice and we just need to wait for her to grow up a little bit at this level,” said the former world No 1. “She will need some time to see how it is every week to be there. And then she will become stronger, much stronger. I think she can easily get into the top 10 sooner than everybody thinks.”

The Transylvania Open started without fans on Monday and a 9pm curfew on bars and restaurants came into force this week because of rising national Covid 19 levels.

Halep said: “It’s super sad but every day we are waiting for this to change and maybe we have some fans before we finish this tournament.”

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