Emma Raducanu and Fran Jones visit Oxford colleges as pair weigh up further education

Emma Raducanu is eyeing up a future as a University of Oxford student, according to her friend and fellow tennis professional Fran Jones, who recently spent a day touring Oxford’s colleges with her.

In between the grass-court events at Nottingham and Eastbourne, Raducanu posted photographs of the visit on her Instagram page, featuring not only a view of her in the main quad of Corpus Christi College but also a picture of punts travelling down the River Cherwell.

Asked about the day out on Friday, Jones explained: “We’re both pretty academic, I would say, so we have a vision for the future. And Oxford is definitely something that we would both enjoy.

“Tennis is consuming and it’s important that you can have that vision for your career afterwards, and sometimes keeping in touch with it. And so I think that’s what we were doing. Having an in-touch day with our post-tennis career, which is important to try and keep alive.

“Because we live in a bubble, it’s healthy to have that vision. So that when you do come back in here [at Wimbledon, where Jones is preparing for a first-round meeting with Croatia’s Petra Martic], you’re ready to go again, instead of everything else being drowned out.”

Jones – who has built a professional sporting career despite only having six fingers and seven toes as a result of a rare genetic condition – has always been a quick learner.

She mastered Spanish soon after moving to Barcelona at the age of nine, to train at the same Sanchez-Casal Academy where the young Andy Murray honed his game. She has previously admitted to focusing her sights on Oxbridge from an even earlier stage.

As for Raducanu, she earned an A* in maths and an A in economics from Newstead Wood School, and has previously been connected with the University of Cambridge by her grandmother Niculina Raducanu.

In an interview carried out in Bucharest in 2022, Niculina told the Daily Mail: “I know she wants to go to university to study economics as soon as she has the time. Cambridge University offered her the possibility to take classes there. They said she is welcome any time.”

In response to that interview, Raducanu said: “My nan would definitely prefer me to go to Cambridge. I haven’t applied for anything. Cambridge for me, I don’t have to do it now. I can always go back to my education and it’s something I want to do because there’s more to life than tennis. It’s something I want to be going back to later on. Currently I will just learn but in other ways, not necessarily through a system.”

Back at Wimbledon on Friday, the 23-year-old Jones told reporters that tennis is an excellent preparation for a variety of careers. “There’s a lot I want to do in my life,” said Jones. “And I feel like sometimes I don’t have enough time to do everything that I’d like to do. But I would like to use my different skill sets off the court once I’m done with tennis.

“I think tennis is just a fantastic sport to provide you with the life experiences and the values that many people don’t manage to attain until a much later age.”

Jones was also asked about Raducanu’s recent mood-shift, which has seen the former US Open champion smile her way through last week’s event in Eastbourne.

“It’s just a consequence of her spending some time with me,” Jones replied with a grin. “No, it’s great to see her in that space. As players we carry a lot of weight throughout the year. And it’s important to understand how to balance that. I think she’s coming to terms with how she wants to be and feel, and how she needs to manage her life off the court. I think to see her in a good place is the most important thing for everyone.

“It’s all about how you can manage your pressures, and once you spend a couple of years on the tour, you find your own rhythm and your own formula as to how you feel you can cope with the stresses of the tour. The highs as well, because it’s important to understand that both can be draining.”

Speaking to reporters in Eastbourne last week, Raducanu explained that she could not even bring herself to watch last year’s Wimbledon, which she missed in the aftermath of double-wrist surgery. So to return to SW19 this coming Monday, via a first-round match against 22nd seed Ekaterina Alexandrova, will be a cause for celebration.

“I came to Wimbledon a few days because I had some commitments,” Raducanu explained, in relation to the 2023 tournament. “It was horrible. I’m so grateful to be on the other side of it [because] going there was really rubbing salt into the wound.”

Asked whether her new-found bonhomie stemmed from a recent dip in expectation levels, and a reduction in high-profile advertising campaigns, Raducanu queried the premise of the question. As she pointed out, she is still being promoted by several of her commercial partners.

“I’d say I still have billboards,” Raducanu said. “I saw myself on the tube, Evian and then HSBC in the [Wimbledon] village [this week]. It’s still there but I’d say I’m just owning it more. Like, I did that. I did the US Open. It shouldn’t be a bad or negative thing.”