Tennis star relaxes on visit before US Open

A TENNIS star was spotted on a day trip to Henley ahead of the US Open Tennis Championships.

Emma Raducanu posted photos on Instagram following an excursion to the town on Sunday before the major American tournament, which began this week and is the fourth and final grand slam competition of the year.

The 21-year-old posted five images of her around the town, including two on the towpath near Mill Meadows and one outside Tudor House Antiques in Duke Street.

The post was captioned “Get a grip”, the name of the boat that was moored in Thames Side.

Raducanu’s visit follows her defeat at Wimbledon in July when she was knocked out in the fourth round by Australian Lulu Sun.

She was also knocked out at the Women’s Tennis Association 500 event in Washington earlier this month at the quarter-final stage, by Spanish star, Paula Badosa. Raducanu played down rumours of potentially studying at Oxford University, following a visit to the city earlier this year. She said: “I’m very much focused on my professional tennis career.

“Once that’s over maybe or once I have more disposition or more time, that’s for sure something I would love to explore For now, I’m very much focused on tennis.”

Raducanu has had broadly positive results this year since returning from an eight-month injury lay-off.

She is still managing her comeback after wrist and ankle surgery, turning down an invitation to represent Team GB at the Paris Olympics because she did not want to switch back to playing on clay at Rolan Garros ahead of the US Open.

She was set to be in the US Open main draw, which took play yesterday (Thursday) at 5pm and will hope to replicate her winning success of 2021.