Former world number one Simona Halep has advised Emma Raducanu to "be careful" following her maiden Grand Slam title.
The 18-year-old made history at the 2021 US Open – becoming the first ever qualifier to reach a major final and ending Britain's 44-year wait for a women's Grand Slam champion.
Raducanu's success in New York came at her second ever Grand Slam, where she beat Canadian Leylah Fernandez in straight sets.
Since her victory, the teen has received a number of exciting invitations to events including the Met Gala. She also recently took on an ambassadorial role with Tiffany and Co.
Raducanu's first appearance on the court since her US Open title win was a second-round defeat at the Indian Wells Masters. The Brit was outplayed by world number 100 Aliaksandra Sasnovich, who won 6-2, 6-4.
Halep has commented on Raducanu's shock exit from the tournament and has given the world number 22 some advice.
“It's difficult for me to do an analysis," the Romanian said. "In my case, it took me a long time to win my first Grand Slam, I had won other tournaments before but it is of course not comparable to a Slam. So I can't give my opinion too much.
"From my personal experience, I think you have to be very careful after such a big victory because being so young, you don't have that experience of winning big titles. In Emma's case, it's even the first title of her career.
"Either way, you won't know exactly what a player of this age feels like to win such a tournament."
Raducanu in fact admitted after her Indian Wells defeat that she was "kind of glad" for the experience as it has come as a big learning curve for her.
Indeed, she still has many, many years of her tennis career left and there's plenty of time to fine-tune her game.
