AFTER SMASHING IT IN 2021
EMMA RADUCANU
HIGH HOPES FOR ANOTHER JUBILEE WIMBLEDON WIN
Emma, isolating in Abu Dhabi with Covid, accepts her Sports Personality of the Year award via video, applauded by (from left) Alex Scott, Gary Lineker, award announcers Jason and Laura Kenny, Gabby Logan and Clare Balding; and (below) in action at Wimbledon
‘I’m really humbled to join the amazing past winners’
The unstoppable rise of Emma Raducanu continued as 2021 drew to a close. Fresh from winning the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year (Spoty) award, the 19-year-old tennis star has high hopes for the year ahead.
Top of the list is that, with a patriotic home crowd cheering her on, she’ll emulate Virginia Wade’s victory at Wimbledon in 1977, the Queen’s Silver Jubilee year, with her own triumph for Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee.
A NEW HIGH-FLYER
This time last year Emma was an unknown schoolgirl from Bromley, South London, ranked 338th in the world. Then, last September, to the amazement of the sporting world, she won the US Open. Her extraordinary victory was celebrated with the coveted Spoty prize, the first to be awarded to a woman since Zara Phillips won in 2006. She was also reported to feature in the New Year’s Honours list with an MBE, but names were not confirmed until after hello! went to press.