EMMA RADUCANU hopes she is on the fairway to heaven in New York . . . after taking up GOLF.
Should the Brit, 22, regain the US Open crown a week tomorrow, she will bank a whopping £3.7million in prize money for her efforts.
As important as the money is, the 2021 champ is determined to get away from tennis and make the most of her stay in the Big Apple, not just remain in her room and recover.
Her pal Carlos Alcaraz likes to play golf whenever he is at Wimbledon and he is proficient on two forms of grass.
Now Raducanu has admitted she has started hitting balls on the range in her spare time and learning how to swing a club alongside her new coach Francisco Roig.
To be fair, she does not need to worry about her tennis action — her form has been tee-rific so far at Flushing Meadows and she has had plenty of downtime following two quick-fire victories.
Following her 60-minute second-round win over Indonesian qualifier Janice Tjen, Raducanu said: “There was no practice. I was given the afternoon off, which I’m happy about.
“I’m going to the golf course to try it out. I don’t play. I’m just trying it.
“Francis and some friends play golf, so I’ll go and try and see how I am.
“I will go and, like, swing. We will see how it goes. Get some air time maybe.”
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Raducanu has had some tough draws at this year’s Majors, playing powerhouses Iga Swiatek twice at the Australian and French Open and Aryna Sabalenka at Wimbledon.
It gets no easier this time as she faces another Slam champion, Elena Rybakina, in round three today.
Rybakina, 26, the 2022 Wimbledon winner, has played women’s doubles with Raducanu and is tenth in the world rankings.
Raducanu’s technical and tactical improvements owe a lot to her new partnership with Roig, who used to be in Rafa Nadal’s camp and is a constant talker on court.
The world No 36 is starting to learn some words in Spanish so they can communicate in another language during tense moments.
Raducanu said: “A few words, a few sentences, I’m learning some Spanish.
“In the car rides, he’ll sometimes be teaching me.
“Hopefully I can add to that and then we can do some more words. You might see some on-court coaching in Spanish or something.
“Francis brings so much. He brings a lot of good energy. He’s constantly joking around.
“His energy is sometimes — well, most of the time — higher than all of us at the end of the day.
“But it’s great to have that around, that positivity. And I feed off it. I love having light energy in my team.
“It’s just nice because on the court, I’m always happy, always laughing around him. So I’m pleased with how it’s going.”
Roig, branded a ‘swing doctor’ by tennis pundits, was by Nadal’s side as he claimed 22 Major titles and brings a wealth of experience and knowledge.
In one practice session, the Spaniard encouraged Raducanu to work on her slice — a tactic she may bring to the court against the Moscow-born Kazakhstani Rybakina today.
Raducanu laughed: “It’s something that I’ve just been working on to diversify my game.
“I also want to beat Francis in a slice cross-court, so that’s my main motivation to do it so often.
“I have beaten him before, we played best of three points . . . but he won’t like that I have told you that!
“To take a step towards beating or making it close with the top-ten players consistently, I need to be doing the things I’m doing with Francis now.
“And I think he can really help get me towards that.
“We’ve only had a few weeks together, so I don’t know if it will come this week, but I do believe that over time we will get there.”
