TBH I’m a bit nonplussed that the ways of Mr and Mrs Raducanu are even the slightest bit controversial. I’ve always admired what [little, granted] I know of Emma’s upbringing – quite possibly the most well-rounded education and normal childhood for a top tennis pro ever imo.

Her parents made it a point to expose her to all sorts of activities – different sports, the arts and of course, ensured her academic standing was never sacrificed. Like most parents (and perhaps, especially, as @eraddict suggests, immigrant parents from Communist countries), they did what they thought gave Emma the best chances to succeed. And she has in spades. She’s managed all this with a very loyal group of friends from childhood. Simply tells me Emma grew up with so much love*.

*not suggesting that this is what's being debated; just a little confused as to why her parents, father particularly, seems to catch strays

 

Can this discussion about parenting move elsewhere?

 

Also I don’t think Emma ever said she couldn’t make or keep friend. Only that she couldn’t go out with them very much. She had a lot of friends in secondary school, as was apparent when she went to the graduation ceremony and posted photos on IG. She also easily made friends in tennis who are now life long friends. Issy in NZ, Ben in the U.S. Etc. We’ve joked on EE about how she has so many best friends. And she’s always talking about how great it is to have all her friends around her at Wimbledon. She’s definitely not somebody lacking for friends!

 

BTW, I was just trying to give my perspective on the Asian parenting philosophy, not that I personally fully endorse it. I think you can both teach your child the value of hard work and perserverance, as well as praise them when praise is due.

But how you praise your child is really critial, according to psychology research. A Stanford professor, Carol Dweck, showed that first-graders given good math grades and praised for their effort went on to do much better than others praised for their intelligence for the same grades. And a UPenn professor, Angela Duckworth, showed that "grit", or what Emma calls resilience, the ability to work hard for a long period of time with relatively little immediate return, is what predicts long-term success and happiness.

Parenting is not easy. It's hard to strike that perfect balance between encouraging your child to always strive for more despite adversities and to hone that "grit", while not making them feel discouraged because their parents don't ever seem satisfied with/proud of what they've already achieved. But honestly, I think Emma's parents have done a really good job -- she is that perfect combination of having both resilience and self belief. What more can you ask from parenting? Parents can only do so much. The rest is up to the kid.

 

I recommend you to read the article I posted over here. The nuance here is her parents are "hard to please" by Emma's admission and this aligns well with how Asian parents raise their children. You can't be never impressed by anything your child does even if it is something very impressive. I would like to know how the Raducanus celebrated Emma winning the US Open the way she did. This can't go unnoticed and not be celebrated as the big thing it is otherwise it shows her parents understand nothing not only about tennis but about sports in general. It can't be like 'Okay Emma you won the US Open as a qualifier and you're the first ever to do so" and let it go like a normal thing not even celebrating. Acting unimpressed by everything even when it's impressive is kind of stupid to be honest. You cannot go to an expert in anything and be like 'Come on impress me so I let solve whatever problem I have". Tursunov, with everything bad he might have done when it comes to Emma's wrist issues, nailed this down by saying "I got tired of having to prove myself every day and that's why I left". Coaches are not here to impress Ian or live up to Emma's IQ they are here to train Emma and help her improve.

 

LOL Any parents in the world, would consider themself successful if their kids were a fraction as good as Emma: career accomplished (not to mention financially set for life) by 18, in excellent physical form, with a sweet and bubbly personality that makes everybody want to be her friend and enough inner strength to not rely on others for her own happiness.

 

You would think tiger parenting would produce more Sabalenka's.

 

With respect to winner, UEs and forced errors, here is an interesting old thread on aggressive margin:

https://www.tennisforum.com/threads/emmas-us-open-2021-aggressive-margin-per-game-stats.1386315/

It would be interesting to see how Emma's AM evolved since 2021.

 

With respect to winner, UEs and forced errors, here is an interesting old thread on aggressive margin:

https://www.tennisforum.com/threads/emmas-us-open-2021-aggressive-margin-per-game-stats.1386315/

It would be interesting to see how Emma's AM evolved since 2021.

I would love to look at this but to get official winner/error stats I have to spend thousands on access to SAP which of course isn't going to happen.

There is one solution on TNNS live but here lies the problem:

Using app:

Using Chrome:

So on the app you can get winner/error stats but on the browser it doesn't spill the beans and to make things even more confusing the browser gives the ATP winner/error stats so it's not a platform issue.

If I get board I might look at doing Android app emulation and simulation to get them. No way am I going to create a spreadsheet and manually key in 5000 matches for this season alone.

 

In calculating aggressive margin opponent forced errors are added to winners, which make sense - it does not matter if the opponent reached the ball or not. The problem is that the distinction between UEs and FEs can be blurry at times.

 

Indeed. It's why they get paid the big bucks- the teams of people in the WTA offices whose thankless job it is to distinguish between the UEs and the FEs. Whoever they are. Lol.

Actually, this is a quite common discussion on TC, and most recently I heard I think Lindsey and Chanda discuss this and say that a lot more unforced errors are actually forced errors, due to the match situation. And then they half-joked there is no such thing as an unforced error.

This article says many coaches don't even look at UE stats:

You’ve missed, but was it really an unforced error? | Tennis.com

The unforced error is a backbone of tennis statistical analysis, but how fair of an assessment is it?

www.tennis.com

 

This same problem occurs for a live round by round boxing stats called compubox, problem is it's a old system that was established in 1985, so its just a few people sitting in a control room watching live from all angles and pushing buttons.

It's so subjective that fans do it themselves watching from home broadcast and get different numbers. I would argue if people watch the full replays multiple times and did a counting they would get different results every time.

As long as there is some framework to say multiple experts must be within 5% error I could accept something like that. The Saudi's are investing in boxing heavily at the moment and they have some AI stuff coming in.

 

So to all the disappointed Emma fans, ask yourself this.

When emma starts hitting harder and being more agressive, how many matches do we expect it to take for emma to be consitent and effective, and putting in more explosive energy how long before she can keep that level in matches for more than 2 or even 3 hours ?

In Beijing its first time we have seen emma constantly hit harder and go for corners, Serving faster, yes she still lapses sometimes. Could not maintain it for 3rd set going into 3rd hour.

To me it was first match with this intensity, emma did not go full against Bucsa. To me needs to do it every match, and it could take months to be her norm.

Be happy her tennis has improved.Dont just flick a switch to play style and technique for more power, I expected ROIg work to take 6 months, not 6 weeks.

 

imo her next step should focus on improving her first strike capability and finishing point in short rally, also her prep shot quality before approaching to the net. she's hitting lots of aimless neutral balls back and often turns herself an offensive position into a defensive position. emma really should go for angle and dtl more than hitting harder straight back to the middle. also her little change on her forehand really gives alcaraz forehand vibe and hope we can see her backhand gives a sinner vibe in the coming new season.