Emma Raducanu has rejected the chance to represent Team GB at the Olympics this summer, but insists it is not because she is being a ‘diva’.
The 21-year-old tennis star has declined an invite to take part in the Games in Paris, which begin next month, stating that she wishes to prioritise her fitness and health and do things in her ‘own time’.
Raducanu, who had wrist and ankle surgery last year, said: ‘I think I’m very single-minded and I do things my own way and at my own time.
‘Not in a diva way, but just prioritising my body and my health because I know if I’m fit, if I’m giving my 100 per cent, I know great things are coming. I don’t think there is any need to put additional stress on my body or any risk, especially with my history.’
It comes just days after news broke that Raducanu had split from her billionaire boyfriend Carlo Agostinelli and cuts ties with him on social media.
The Sun reported less than a fortnight ago that the couple – who were seen arm-in-arm at Paris Fashion Week in September last year – had unfollowed each other on Instagram after the whirlwind love affair had ‘run its course’.
Raducanu is also said to have blocked her 23-year-old ex – who is the son of tycoon Robert Agostinelli, the co-founder and chairman of private equity firm Rhone Group – on social media.
The tennis sensation was forced to spend around eight months out of action last year due to surgery, and opted out of the French Open just last month as she decided to work on her fitness for grass and hard-court seasons.
The former US Open champion was offered an 11th-hour wildcard spot to take part in the Olympics on Thursday – two spaces are generally kept back for former Grand Slam champions who do not have a high enough ranking to qualify for automatic inclusion.
However, she made the decision to decline the offer as clay courts, as present at Roland Garros where the Olympics would take place, would pose too much of an injury risk before taking to the hard-court seasons.
She has said, however, that she hopes to represent Team GB in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
She said that she ‘loves’ playing for her country, having played a leading role in the Billie Jean King Cup in April, but explained the time is just not right for her this year but that she hopes to be part of the next one.
Raducanu – who lost her semi-final to Katie Boulter at the Rothesay Nottingham Open on the weekend – made nearly £10million last year thanks to brand deals despite her failure to repeat her 2021 US Open success.
Sponsorship and endorsement deals with the likes of Porsche, Nike, British Airways, Evian, Dior, Tiffany and Vodafone, saw a meteoric rise in her finances last year regardless of having a difficult time on the tennis court.
Accounts published for her company Harbour 6 for the 12 months to the end of February 2023 showed that her fortune rocketed from £667,000 to £10.2million.
She has faced accusations that too much time is being spent on off court money spinning work than progressing as a tennis star.
But her management team have said this is not the case, with her agent Max Eisenbud saying she had passed up on ‘millions’ in sponsorship deals.
Raducanu’s relationship with Agostinelli, a former head boy of the elite Harrow School, is understood to have been her most serious yet, as she has previously told of how she was banned from having boyfriends growing up.
They had frequently featured on each other’s Instagram pages where they shared a string of images of them together including on romantic holidays.
One of the snaps from Mexico City showed Raducanu with Agostinelli’s mother Mathilde Favier, who is a PR chief at French fashion house Dior, with whom the world’s number 205 has a £2million deal.
A source told The Sun on Sunday earlier this month: ‘Emma has 2.4million followers on Instagram but Carlo is no longer one of them.
‘It seems their relationship has run its course.’
The daughter of a Romanian-born father and Chinese mother, Raducanu has previously spoken of how she is ‘lucky’ to have a pushy mum and dad.
In an interview with The Times, she revealed she began playing tennis at a young age because her dad forced her into it.
‘I didn’t like it, but then I got older and tennis became more of a priority, I was pushing myself,’ she said.
She admitted that her parents are ‘pushy’ and explained that she often feels a pang of jealousy at her school friends from Bromley who are travelling or going to university.
However, despite telling of how she wasn’t allowed to hang out with friends growing up, she said she does not regret their methods.
She said: ‘I’ve seen some great people who I was playing with in the juniors who had way more lenient parents, who were like, “It’s OK if you lost,” and those players don’t play tennis any more, so I don’t blame my parents for it.’