Emma Raducanu walked off court at Queen’s Club on Sunday having lost the final to Donna Vekic 6-0, 7-6(8-6), the second time in 2026 she has reached a final and fallen at the last hurdle. Within hours, she was photographed hand-in-hand with PR executive John Friend, age 32, in Battersea Park, the couple strolling through the crowds, sitting on a bench, and, by one observer’s account, looking “besotted with one another.” The images quickly caught fans’ attention, and they had their opinions. 

The Queen’s final itself had been a bittersweet occasion for Raducanu. She had not lost a set all week until she faced Vekic, a 29-year-old Croatian who lost her qualifying cut and reached the main draw as a lucky loser. Vekic dismantled her 6-0 in the opening set and closed it out 8-6 in the tie break. Although a loss, it was her best performance of the year, as a result of which she moved up from 42nd to 31st in the rankings and earned a seed at Wimbledon.

However, the Battersea Park photographs told a different story. An eyewitness told The Sun that the couple “looked like they didn’t have a care in the world” as they moved through the crowds, adding that “any disappointment looked like it had evaporated” and that they were “certainly not self-conscious of being together and affectionate.” 

Friend, described as a PR expert, is nine years older than the 23-year-old Raducanu. On the subject of relationships, Raducanu has previously noted the friction it can create:

“My parents were very much against it as it interfered with training.” She dated the billionaire heir Carlo Agostinelli from 2023 to 2024. During the 2025 US Open, rumors of the Brit dating Carlos Alcaraz emerged as they paired up for the mixed doubles exhibition event. 

However, this time their age difference seemed to be the reason that many people had a problem with.

Fans react to Raducanu’s rumored partner

Several fans immediately picked up on the age difference between Friend and Raducanu. One wrote simply:  “Age gap icky to me.” It was a harsh observation, but not an uncommon one for the sort of scrutiny that Raducanu is subjected to when her personal life comes to the fore.

A more compassionate and witty perspective came from a fan who located an unusual amount of solace in the whole situation: “When I’m making a bad decision or feeling down because they switched my teacher, I’m gonna look at Emma, who’s sure to be going through something worse.”

One fan took it a step further and challenged the context of the pictures: “How does Emma Raducanu expect to win tennis matches if she’s got time to do PR bulls*** for old London single fathers who owe Rupert Murdoch a favour?” The reference is to an Australian-American businessman who is 95 years old.

“Plays badly and positions herself badly and has bad taste in men,” one fan wrote, bundling the Queen’s final, her public image and her romantic choices into a single dismissal. 

A fifth reaction zeroed in on Friend’s appearance specifically: “Oh Emmur why couldn’t you find somebody who was age appropriate and not balding?” The comment drew its own replies, and the thread continued in much the same vein. 

For Raducanu, who is two weeks away from Wimbledon and as well-placed as she has been in years to make a deep run on home soil, the noise off the court shows no signs of quietening down any time soon.