Emma Raducanu has defended her commitment to tennis and hit out at criticism of her sponsorship deals and commercial work.
The US Open champion suffered a second-round defeat to Katerina Sinaiakova at the Miami Open on Thursday and there have been suggestions her focus is being taken away from tennis.
Raducanu this week signed a deal with Porsche. The 19-year-old has also landed endorsements with Tiffany & Co, British Airways, Dior, Evian and Vodafone since her New York triumph.
But the British No1 insists her main priority is improving results on the court.
"Maybe you just see, on the news or on social media, me signing this or that deal and I feel like it’s quite misleading because I’m doing five, six hours a day (of training), I’m at the club for 12 hours a day," said Raducanu.
"But I throw out one post in the car on the way to practice and all of a sudden it’s ‘I don’t focus on tennis’. I think that it is unfair but it’s something I have learned to deal with and become a bit more insensitive to the outside noise.
"At the end of the day, I feel like my days (with sponsors) are pretty limited. I’m not doing crazy days. I’m doing three, four days every quarter, so it’s really not that much."
