Emma Raducanu forced to change phone number multiple times as Brit prepares for US Open

Emma Raducanu has revealed that she has been forced to change her phone number several times since becoming US Open champion. The 19-year-old is preparing to return to Flushing Meadows to defend her title next month and will have a new coach by her side after setting up a first spell with Dmitry Tursunov.

Raducanu caused an overnight sensation when she became the first qualifier in tennis history to win a Grand Slam at the US Open last year. Aged just 18 and ranked 150th in the world at the time, she won ten straight matches without dropping a set to lift her first career title in what was only her fourth tour-level event. /p>

Her historic feat earned her superstar status almost instantly, and the 19-year-old has now opened up about the effect of becoming a global sensation as she admitted to changing her number several times over the course of the last year. Saying she needs to "get better at responding to text messages," the US Open champion was asked if they had arrived in droves.

"Yeah, they do," she confessed. "I've changed my number a few times. It's also [WhatsApp] group chats. You get added to a group chat, and it's 'Oh no.' No 10 admission World came after she said she enjoys spending time alone, saying it's a big part of her personality alongside her perfectionist - sometimes boring - tendencies.

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Raducanu added: ""I would say I'm too much of a perfectionist. It drives me crazy sometimes. Like I obviously think that's a big trait, because I don't think I would have had the results that I did without that drive and desire to be better.

"But it can be very self-defeating at the same time, because you're never happy and you'll always complain or find something wrong." Claiming that her perfectionism "definitely" extends to areas of her life outside of tennis, she continued: "But I also think another part of my personality is that I really like being alone sometimes.

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"Socially, I love spending time with people. But also, I love my own space. The 19-year-old also named a few tour players she had become friends with, but explained that it was difficult to form friendships in tennis.

"I have a few friends on the tour, but it's hard because you don't have a lot of [free] time...