58 words. 16 questions. Three minutes. And one disastrous press conference.
Struggling tennis star Emma Raducanu has been involved in an incredibly icy interview ahead of the Madrid Open.
Facing the prospect of falling outside the top 100 ranked players, just 18 months since she stormed the US Open to win a grand slam at the age of 18, Raducanu appears to be feeling the pressure.
She dropped down to No. 85 in the WTA rankings following her first-round exit against Jelena Ostapenko in Stuttgart last week.
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It set the scene for a mortifying exchange with journalists before her campaign begins in Madrid.
According to reports, a media officer from the WTA Tour stepped in to cut the interview after less than three minutes.
It was a trainwreck from the beginning with Raducanu responding with brief answers from the very start.
One journalist eventually challenged Raducanu to explain why she was giving such snarky responses.
Her one-worded response is when the media official jumped in to cut the exchange.
The tournament’s press conference transcript shows one reporter asked: “You’re not making this very easy. Is this deliberate that you don’t want to make this too easy for us?”.
She responded: “No”.
The media-minder then cut in to say: “I think let’s just leave it there”.
Veteran tennis journalist Mike Dickson was among those involved in the awkward interview.
“A couple of us attempted an interview with Emma Raducanu ahead of her opener tomorrow night at the Madrid Open. It didn’t go very well,” he posted on Twitter.
The Telegraph’s Simon Briggs posted on Twitter Raducanu was “showing the strain” of the pressure she is under to stop her rankings nose dive.
Raducanu is predicted to drop to No. 101 in the world after Madrid — unless she is able to defend the points she picked up in her fourth-round appearance 12 months ago.
If able to win her first round match, Raducanu will play world No. 1 Iga Swiatek in the second round.
It is something that could leave her needing a wild card to play at Wimbledon.
Raducanu is on a three-match losing streak and is showing no sign of pulling out of her form slump before the French Open begins on May 28.