Emma Raducanu says she deleted Instagram, WhatsApp off her phone and is ‘very content without it’

Emma Raducanu says she has been taking a break from social media since her exit at the Australian Open to fully focus on her tennis.

After her convincing straight-sets victory over Kovinic, Raducanu said: “After the AO [Australian Open] I deleted WhatsApp and Instagram off my phone, and after that, I’ve been living under my own little rock.

“I felt like sometimes you go through patches where you just want to zone in on yourself, and I was very content with my life without it.

“I’ve learned regardless of what you do, if you do good, if you do bad, people are going to come at you regardless.”

World No. 1 Iga Swiatek has recently spoken of the pressure she receives from social media for her to perform at her best.

After losing to Barbora Krejcikova in the Dubai final at the end of February, Swiatek wrote a message which mentioned: “I can see that some of you have higher expectations of me, but well… I’m just human.”

Raducanu has endured a disrupted start to 2023. The 2021 US Open champion has been battling with a bout of tonsillitis and a recurring wrist injury, which has seen her out of competitive action since the Australian Open.

The British No. 1 admits that she decided to play her first-round match at Indian Wells only 20 minutes before the start of play.

“I didn’t feel too good this morning [Thursday],” she told BBC radio. “I’m just so happy with the way I fought and dealt with the circumstances.

“I just woke up feeling not great, to be honest. I felt quite ill so I’m just happy to have played the match and then to win it, despite how I felt today.

“Today, before the match, I did not warm up. Two minutes before I was called I was sleeping in the treatment room, so I’m just proud to have got out there and then won.”

Raducanu will next play Poland’s Magda Linette at the WTA 1000 tournament.

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