911 Love

Behind the Scenes with Emma Raducanu

Rising star: At the photo shoot, Raducanu’s excitement behind the wheel of the latest 911 is plain to see.

At 18 years of age, she unexpectedly wins the US Open and is suddenly a rising star in the world of tennis and a role model for an entire generation. In this issue of Christophorus, the new Porsche brand ambassador, Emma Raducanu, talks about motivation and motorsport.

By Heike HIENTZSCH Photos by Victor Jon GOICO, Paul ZIMMER

A novel that is world literature. “Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence,” wrote Jane Austen about her protagonist in 1816. The first name Emma, which is the title of the famous book, means “whole” or

“Tennis alone would be too one-dimensional.”

Emma RADUCANU on her love of motorsport.

“universal.” When the Raducanus name their daughter Emma, they are expressing their high hopes for her. Emma Raducanu is born in Toronto on November 13, 2002. Her father, Ian, was born in Romania, while her mother, Renee, is Chinese. When Emma is two years old, the family moves to the United Kingdom, making their home in Bromley, just about an hour’s drive southeast of downtown London. Her parents work in the finance industry. The heroine of the novel, who is close to the same age, lives in Highbury, which is almost precisely the same distance from the city. But the two inspiring Emma biographies are worlds apart, of course. While the literary figure is destined to idle away the hours, the athlete trains for success from an early age.

Resilience and logic

“I feel like my culture and family background have definitely played a part in who I am,” says Emma Raducanu, when we get together for the photo shoot. “I feel like I’ve got a lot of resilience from my mom, which helps me on the tennis court. I’m more logical in my thought processes. I feel like that is from my dad. Both of them expected a lot of me. They inspired and motivated me.” During her sports career, she completes her A levels with top grades in mathematics and economics. And she’s passionate about motorsport. “Tennis alone would be too one-dimensional,” she says. And the young woman leaves little doubt, brimming over, as she is, with curiosity and lust for life. She can imagine studying economics or law. But first tennis.

She begins playing when she’s five years old. She practices before school and again in the evening. She even continues training when the floodlights go out. “My dad always told me, if I could serve in the dark, it would be easy in the daylight.” Even as a child, she knows exactly what she wants to do: play at nearby Wimbledon and clinch a Grand Slam victory. She also begins driving go-karts at the age of six. “I thought it was cool and a lot of fun. The better I got, the