Prediction that Emma Raducanu will retire from professional tennis within 24 months

Emma Raducanu. See base of page for credit.

This is very obliquely about animals only insofar as that Emma Raducanu has a companion dog and she loves her dog. And I believe that it is entirely possible that she will be spending a lot more time with her dog in the not too distant future based upon what I have read today in the newspaper.

I hope anybody who reads this (very few 😎) will bear with me because it's not about cats! It's about something which has come into my head and like perhaps millions of others I've been following Emma Raducanu's progress both before and since her three operations.

She has a health protected world ranking of 103 and she's just got back to full-time professional tennis and it's not going well. She was full of expectation saying that she felt 'light' meaning she had lost the burden of being a major champion with the incumbent expectations.

"Move aside Emma Raducanu, Great Britain has a new tennis star in Katie Boutler" - News media headline today March 5th 2024 which must hurt Raducanu. It must further demotivate her I am afraid.

Update 19th May: She has withdrawn from qualifying for the French Open! Not reason given. She had to qualify as she is ranked 212 which is less than it was when she won the US Open in 2021. She is going backwards. There are numerous other instances of a lack of commitment.

Search for 'Raducanu' on this site to see more articles about here.

Commitment?

Her recent exploit was in the prestigious Qatar Open. Stuart Fraser, the tennis correspondent for The Times newspaper says that her preparation for the Qatar Open was poor. Rather than travelling to Qatar to acclimatise herself to the conditions and the courts, she stayed in Dubai and attended an event at a luxury hotel with Naomi Campbell, the supermodel. She is highly marketable and her portfolio of commercial endorsements are worth an estimated 12 million (annually, I believe).

"I think that it's hard for me to get used to the tour schedule" - Emma Raducanu.

But her commercial marketing it is claimed has interfered with her preparations for tennis tournaments which she claims is unfair criticism. But rather than practising in Doha she only managed to fit in a short Sunday afternoon hit after rain had caused disruption to her court schedules.

She lost 6-0, 7-6 in the first round of the Qatar Open. It was not an example of progress on her path back from being ranked number 262 in the world. Her target is to be within the top 10 as she once was after her spectacular US Open win.

Raducanu's signature is very dense and obliterated. I am not sure what it says if anything about her character. Image: Wikipedia.

But here's the problem. She had a bad match with 48 unforced errors to her opponent's 22. She claimed that she was struggling with everything including the conditions. She said that she couldn't see the ball properly and that's because she hadn't practised on outside courts under similar conditions to acclimatise herself to it. This to me shows a lack of commitment I regret to say.

In disarray

And she's decided to return home to practice rather than go on to play at next week's WTA 1000 tournament in Dubai under a wildcard exemption. Next month there is the Sunshine Swing of America tournaments in Indian Wells and Miami. She considered dropping down to the tier below to get more tennis practice and to start winning competitions or matches at least.

But her thinking seems to be in disarray. She's not sure what to do. This is indicated in what she said:

"I think I'm just going to go home and practice, and we'll see where I go from there. It's hard for me to get used to the tour schedule. It's just tournament back, tournament straight away, so I think that I need to schedule my tournaments a little better, as well as just trying to get some more matches under my belt."

Very flat statement. A very uncommitted statement. The words, I would argue, of a person who is somewhat lost about what to do and how to achieve her goals. And indicative of a person whose not happy playing pro tennis. I wonder if she has gone home to discuss her future in pro tennis as her attitude looks very flat and demotivated.

And in the past - last year - she has demonstrated that she struggles physically to play pro tennis week in week out. Her body tends to breakdown. I feel that her body is not robust enough.

Future looks bad

I personally am very negative about her future. I don't think she will get back into the top 10. I don't think she will make much progress at all because while she's been away the other women tennis players have improved such as Anna Kalinskaya ranked 38. She is a great player. Competition is more difficult. And I don't think she likes the lifestyle of a professional tennis player either.

I also believe that her win at the US Open was somewhat fortuitous because she was playing against a line of people who were not ranked that highly. That was pure luck. And at the time she was in great form; somewhat innocently just expressing her love of tennis without feeling the pressure so much.

After she won that prestigious tennis event she felt the pressure and I think it's taken away a lot of the gloss and fun of tennis for her.

I have a strong feeling that she does not have the desire to be a professional tennis player because she's complained before about the tennis professional's lifestyle. You don't hear this sort of complaint from any other woman professional tennis player that I can see. They just get on with it.

These days she looks like an average professional female tennis player. Not in anyway exceptional. Her ranking around 250 is correct. McEnroe has commented that she has a huge task to climb the ranks. He was implying that she won't make it.

Unhappy? Money

She looks unhappy too. It is hidden in forced smiles.

She's made a lot of money. I don't know how much but it must be upwards of £50 million perhaps more even. She does not need to play tennis or indeed work at all again in her lifetime.

She can go home, be with her dog, be with her family and enjoy life. She has won a major tennis tournament. She has achieved a lot. What more does she need to prove? I think that question enters her mind. 

Perhaps she wants to prove to herself that winning the U.S. Open wasn't a fluke. She doesn't want to be a one trick pony. She wants to be a genuine classy professional tennis player but I think she's learned that her heart is not in it and it makes her unhappy which why I think she will retire within 24 months. The pro tennis life is not for her and I believe this has dawned on her.

P.S. I think she'll retire even if she reads this and wants to disprove me. The pull to stop will be too strong.

Media

News media are making matters worse for Emma because there's so much news media chatter about her because of her exceptional US Open win being the only player male or female to win as a qualifier. The media can't leave her alone which means added pressure. She's trying to escape the inescapable conclusion that her US Open win was a bit fluky.

The Times

Matthew Syed, the respected Times journalist and former champion table tennis player, has, indirectly, supported what I am saying in this article. He says that her recent poor defeat must be a wake-up call. He calls it a "career-defining wake-up call". He says that there are now no excuses for losing as in the past she has had injuries resulting in losses and she has indirectly blamed coaching for her failures.

He adds that, "It will be obvious to her most ardent fans - and hopefully to Raducanu herself - that this has nothing to do with injury....If her goal is to be the best player she can be, she is emphatically not travelling that road". Those who focus on the commercial side of sport openly acknowledge that she is diminishing her brand. He adds that "that a sporting career is scarily short" and that "this is her time, her chance to push on to glimpse the preciousness of the few years ahead."

He urges her to seize the moment and I sense that he is urging her to commit to being the best she can be. And this is what I'm saying. She appears to be lacking commitment at the moment because I don't think her heart is truly in the professional tennis player's lifestyle.

Sponsors

I also predict that she'll lose most of her lucrative sponsor deals over the coming 12 months. She'll become an average journeyman pro going nowhere. The celeb life will be over soon.

Katie Boulter

Katie Boulter has just won the San Diego Open which is her second ATP win and puts her in the top 30. She has taken on the role of the best British player and this must be demoralising for Raducanu whose all but forgotten languishing in the mid-200s or whatever. She is finished. Sorry but that is the reality.

Photo credit: By si.robi - Raducanu WMQ18 (16), CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=71047731

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Impending roof collapse forces animal shelter to clear the building

NEWS AND VIEWS: Cape Breton Shelter was forced to clear the building of dogs, cats and one rabbit over fears that the roof might collapse under the weight of heavy snow that fell during a snowstorm that lasted four days.

The Cape Breton SPCA in Sydney, N.S., as it appeared on Tuesday. The organization says there are concerns the roof could collapse under the weight of snow. (Sarah Lyon - image credit)

When Sarah Lyon was interviewed by CBC's Main Street Cape Breton in an interview on Wednesday, she said that staff were "prepping the animals and getting them ready for evacuation."

At the time the shelter had 45 animals including 19 dogs, both adults and puppies, and 25 cats and one rabbit.

The snow storm lasted four days as mentioned and staff stayed with the animals as they heard creaking sounds coming from the roof while it bowed under the weight of the snow.

Sarah Lyon said that the ceiling was starting to look structurally unreliable.

The shelter animals will be placed in other shelters until it safe to return. In the meantime a contractor went to the shelter to remove snow and ice from the roof. The building is 47 years old. Comment: that isn't very old but I guess they had to evacuate the building out of an abundance of caution. Questions should be asked about the original construction.

The report by CBC implies that the building will need work in order to test the structural integrity and potential repair. Comment: repairs might be expensive which is the kind of expense that an animal shelter does not want.

Further comment: is the first time that I have encountered a news story about an animal shelter where the roof might collapse under the weight of snow. I've been reading stories about shelters for the last 15 years so this is a novel situation which is why I am reporting it.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

UK police community support officer orders man to clean up his dog's urine

NEWS AND COMMENT: This is another very strange indeed ridiculous story because the behaviour of the police community support officer is extraordinary and ridiculous.

Steve Schuurman, 56, an NHS worker, was walking his dog in Bournemouth, on the south coast of England (information provided for non-UK citizens) last week. His dog cocked her leg to relieve herself which is what we expect dogs to do.

Dog urinating in typical style! This is not the dog in the story. Image: The Telegraph.

In the UK, the modern policies to pick up dog faeces which makes a lot of sense and people do it all the time these days. But there are no rules about trying to scrub off urine from surfaces. That's entirely impractical and ridiculous.

However, a police community support officer became aggressive towards Steve Schuurman, according to him. He claims that the Dorset police community officer told him to "clear [up] your F*****g dog p**s".

He challenged her at which point the officer threatened to have him arrested if he didn't move on.

At that time, Dorset Police and Bournemouth Council had a stall and a van in the town centre as part of a day of action and after several high-profile crimes in the area.

Steve Schuurman said he would have cleaned up his dog's urine but didn't know how to do it.

He reported the incident to the Dorset Police complaints department. They are looking into it! Steve Schuurman said that the woman "got really aggressive" and "was waving her hands around and putting her hands on her hips, saying it was disgusting."

He asked for an apology. Apparently there were two female police community officers as I understand it. On asking for the apology they told him that he would be arrested if he didn't move on.

As I said, it is extraordinary. And an abuse of police powers. For those living abroad, a "police community support officer" is a kind of lesser police officer with shorter training but they wear a uniform and have certain rights/powers but not those of police officers.

Further comment: obviously these officers were asking for the impossible and therefore they were acting stupidly. And of course if we are to be totally fair, nobody ever asks cat owners to clear up the cat's urine when they pee in public places. Not that it's practical or feasible but it's another point worth making about the idiocy of the behaviour of these two police officers.

There is one last point to make and that is this: of course, when an animal urinates in a public place it is not nice. It is possibly unacceptable but it happens all over Great Britain and other countries all the time. It'll be up to the government of any country to create a law which forbids it. But the police officers can't make up the rules as they go along.

Such a law would be very difficult to pass through Parliament in the UK and in any other legislature in any other country. In fact it would be impossible today but one day it may happen. It really might happen one day.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Love completely healed this shy, 18-year-old, polydactyl, deaf, tortoiseshell, hoarded cat

What can you say except love conquers all. People ask what should a new comer to cat caretaking do when they adopt a cat? Love her completely and all the knowledge you need will flow from that starting point because you'll be eager to learn and communicate with your cat. With cats love is always reciprocated. The more the better.

The caregiver in the video had lots of experience and she poured it out all over her unadoptable shelter cat. Poly the cat had all the wrong attributes for being adopted at a shelter. Sometimes you'll meet people who go against the grain and adopt the least popular cat at a shelter.

Every time it works out great. It is thanks to the person. They have a brilliant attitude. They are special people. Like Poly in the video the cats adore these adopters. Listen to Poly purr. It is intense. The purr speaks volumes about the closeness of the relationship. 

If only all human-to-cat relationships were like this. There'd be not feral cats, no 'bad cat behaviour', no cats abandoned to shelters or besides the road. Just great relationships all the way to the end of the cat's life.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Woman with death fixation accused of torturing and killing a cat having watched a well-known Netflix docuseries

NEWS AND OPINION: You may have heard of the Netflix docuseries called "Don't F**k with Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer". I haven't seen it but it documents the investigation by a crowd-funded group of amateur sleuths of Luka Magnotta's animal cruelty crimes. 

Luka Magnotta is notorious for suffocating two kittens in a plastic bag while videoing the acts and then uploading the video to the Internet. I have that video and you can watch the first part of it on my website but not the whole of it because it is too cruel for any company to host.

Anyway, back to the story. It appears (alleged) that this woman, 25 year old Scarlet Blake in the UK, was inspired or encouraged by this Netflix series to follow suit, to kill a cat in a sadistic way and then dissect the cat and then put the cat in a blender apparently. The whole thing is absolutely disgusting and horrific. The woman looks perfectly normal and you can see in the photograph that she had a slight smirk on her face when under arrest as if this is okay and no problem.

Scarlet Blake. Picture: Vagner Hyde News and Pictures Ltd. Problem with publishing the picture here? Please contact me. Thanks.

But this Netflix series allegedly catalysed something inside of and she allegedly had to start doing what Luka Magnotta did which was firstly to allegedly kill a cat and then a man, a complete stranger to her, whose name is Jorge Martin Carreno, 30, whose body was found in a river.

Initially the police thought that he had an accident resulting in his death but they then discovered about two years later that he had been hit on the head and died of blunt force trauma followed by drowning as I understand it.

The story is interesting for me because I know a lot about Luka Magnotta as I have written about him many times. And Luka Magnotta fascinates a lot of people. He is now in prison in Canada on a life sentence but he has professed to quite like it on occasions and he's got a boyfriend there. He was a porno star and he is gay.

RELATED: Who is Luka Magnotta?

He is famous for the wrong reasons. Scarlet Blake became fixated on violence. I don't know whether that had set in before watching the Netflix docuseries or afterwards. It appears that the Netflix series hardened her evil thoughts if the stories are true. I stress that these are allegations at the moment because one is innocent until proved guilty.

But the news media is all over this story which is why I am reporting it. The prosecution barrister in the trial which is coming taking place, Allison Morgan KC, said that Blake had a "fixation with violence and with knowing what it would be like to kill someone". She added that: "He died because he encountered the defendant on that night. He died because he met a person who had a fixation with violence and with knowing what it would be like to kill someone."

She had an extreme interest in killing and death that went beyond fantasy. It is alleged that she derived social gratification from the thought of violence and death.

Her actions indicate planning as she purchased equipment to trap the cat. Her actions too are the classic case of a person of this character first testing or trying out their desire to kill on a vulnerable domestic cat first and then moving onto a human. This is exactly what happened, as mentioned, with Luka Magnotta and it happens with many other criminals.

The FBI in America understand this and treat animal cruelty seriously. That's what they say anyway.

Blake apparently boasted about the killing with others and "her desire to open up a person like her little cat friend" the court was told. And the court was also told that "It is clear that in her own mind she made a connection between what it felt like to harm this cat and what it would feel like to harm a person.

Blake denies murder. The trial continues.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.