How Emma Raducanu was at the heart of Great Britain turning around Billie Jean King Cup hopes

Emma Raducanu, centre, played a pivotal role in GB ending long BJK Cup run of failure – Aurelien Meunier/Getty Images for ITF

The cry of “Tuscany!” rang out around Le Chaudron on Saturday night, as the British Billie Jean King Cup team gathered for a joyous celebratory photograph.

The meaning would not have been immediately obvious to any bystanders. But this was an in-joke which revealed the warmth of feeling between the players.

“Me and Fran [Jones] are going to Tuscany and that was the running joke of the week,” explained Emma Raducanu, after she had beaten Diane Parry to bring home a stunning 3-1 win over France. “Just a girls’ holiday at the end of the season, after the [BJK Cup] Finals. And the rest of them are invited to our little weekend as well.”

For British captain Anne Keothavong, the developing bonds within the team are a huge bonus. The sense of unity should not only keep her first-choice squad together for future ties, including November’s Finals week in Seville, but also put the players in the best frame of mind to compete.

The former Spurs striker Steve Archibald memorably defined team spirit as “an illusion glimpsed in the aftermath of victory”. Yet there was a real sense, as the British overturned the odds in Le Portel, that their togetherness had begotten their success rather than the other way around.

Raducanu, who has sometimes given the impression of aloofness, was at the heart of it all. After her first-round win over Caroline Garcia, she credited Jones for handing out courtside guidance and encouraging her to step in on her second-serve returns.

Then, having brought the tie back to level pegging on the first evening, Raducanu sent a message to her downcast team-mate Katie Boulter. It had been a dismal day for Boulter, who won the first two games against Diane Parry and then lost the next 12 to go down by a 6-2, 6-0 scoreline. But she appreciated the encouragement, and would later say that Raducanu’s words had inspired her to her 7-5, 6-0 win over Clara Burel on Saturday afternoon.

As Raducanu explained after the tie, “I basically just told her: ‘Head up, tomorrow’s a new day, we’re 1-1, we’re not 2-0 down, it’s a fresh start. There’s no difference from starting how we started Friday. It’s all to play for today.’ And then I also said: ‘Look, if anyone’s going to bring it home, it’s going to be us today.’ I know Katie loves playing Fed Cup [the old name for this event, before its 2020 rebrand]. And yeah, it was a huge, huge help having her win that first tie.”

The significance of this victory should not be underestimated. While Andy Murray and his Davis Cup team have been highly competitive for a decade, famously winning the title in Ghent in 2015, the British women have struggled to compete with quality opponents.

For years, they were trapped in the second tier of the competition, alongside the likes of Liechtenstein and Luxembourg. But when Keothavong named the team for Le Portel, a month ago, it was self-evidently the strongest that Britain has been able to put out for decades.

You would have to go back to the 1980s – probably to Virginia Wade and Sue Barker – for the last time that two players of such quality have worked in tandem. And this was a truly cooperative project, something rarely seen on the self-absorbed tennis tour. Shortly after the tie had concluded, Boulter wrote an Instagram message to Raducanu captioned: “You my idol.”

On a professional circuit known for its loneliness, both women can benefit from the connection they built in France. But let’s keep our focus here on the national squad. As a delighted Keothavong put it, “Yeah, everyone wants to be part of this team again. Which for me, as captain, is a great place to be.”

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