By Rory Carroll
INDIAN WELLS, California, March 6 (Reuters) - She became one of the most recognizable faces in tennis after her breakthrough win at the 2021 U.S. Open, but Emma Raducanu said she still enjoys occasional moments of anonymity, allowing her to slip into a character she calls "Ella."
The Briton's life was forever changed when she came out of nowhere to triumph in New York as a teenager and soon after was signing major endorsement deals, hitting balls with Kate Middleton and receiving a letter
from the Queen.
But at a Southern California coffee shop, a barista asked for her name, where her accent was from and if she was planning to attend the tournament.
"Sometimes I love getting to know people and pretending I'm someone completely different and making up a story. It's quite fun and refreshing," she said while speaking to reporters at Indian Wells following her 6-1 6-3 second-round win over Anastasia Zakharova.
"I'm Ella quite a lot, which is quite similar (to Emma). I traveled to America to visit my friend on a gap year and I'm working at a summer camp," she said with a laugh.
COMMANDING WIN
The real Raducanu, seeded 25th, was sharp on Friday, dominating Russian qualifier Zakharova in less than 90 minutes.
"My game plan was to take control of the points, and I think I did that pretty well," she said.
Raducanu came to the California desert looking to shake off a disappointing start to the season, especially the back-to-back first-round losses she suffered in Qatar and Dubai last month.
"In hindsight, I think the Middle East was too much of a push. I wasn't feeling good health-wise and kind of made myself stay out there, but I probably wouldn't do the same again," she said.
"Preparing for Indian Wells, I've been practicing in a way that I enjoyed. I'm seeing progress, moving in a good way, feeling better, and trying to unlock the game style that I enjoy playing."
COACHING CHANGES
Raducanu split with coach Francisco Roig after her second-round exit at January's Australian Open and has since reunited with Mark Petchey, who is serving in an informal coaching role.
Roig was the eighth coach of Raducanu's career, and she admitted she has struggled to find a coach who will allow her to be herself on the court.
"Of course you need to have discipline and do the fundamentals well, but I have an element of instinctiveness that I feel like some coaches try and coach out of me," she said.
"They want me to play high percentage all the time, and then I feel stuck in something that I'm not necessarily enjoying, and I haven't practiced doing something else.
"I like having the freedom to express myself... that's a big thing and over the last week, I'm starting to get that."
(Reporting by Rory Carroll in Indian Wells; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
