Indian Wells: Tennis star Emma Raducanu reflects on US Open win as she prepares to return to action - 'it's been a very cool three weeks'

US Open champion Emma Raducanu says it has been a "very cool three weeks" following her historic win, as she prepares to return to action at Indian Wells.

The 18-year-old from Bromley, southeast London, became one of the biggest names in women's tennis after her New York victory and is getting ready to return to the court at the BNP Paribas Open later this week.

It will mark the teenager's first time playing in the tournament, and her opening match will be against either Colombia's Maria Camila Osorio Serrano or Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich.

If she wins her first match, she could face Romanian two-time grand slam champion Simona Halep.

Speaking at her pre-tournament news conference, Raducanu said: "It's been a very cool three weeks. I've got to experience some great things that I probably never would have got to do before, but after that, I just went straight back to training and focusing on this competition and the upcoming ones that I've got lined up."

The tennis star, who now has more than two million Instagram followers, attributed "not thinking anything differently" to how she got to this point in her career and said she does not "really want to change anything".

"If I put additional thoughts in my head then that will just create a problem I think. I'm just going to keep going about my business and staying the same," she added.

Since her US Open triumph - which saw her become Britain's first female grand slam winner since Virginia Wade won Wimbledon in 1977 - Raducanu has been spotted on the red carpet at the premiere of the new James Bond film, No Time To Die.

She even managed to fit in a quick match with the Duchess of Cambridge at an event in southwest London.

However, the teenager has made it clear that playing competitively on the tennis court is what she wants to do the most.

She is currently working without a permanent coach, having decided not to turn her short-term arrangement with Andrew Richardson, who help her lift the US Open title, into anything permanent.

Throughout the Indian Wells, Raducanu is set to be working with former British number one Jeremy Bates, but he primarily coaches Katie Boulter alongside a role as national women's coach for the Lawn Tennis Association.

"Even though I'm quite young I've got a lot of experience banked and at the end of the day you're out there on your own and you have to be your own coach on the court, so I'm pretty comfortable," she said.

The tournament is one of the biggest on the WTA and ATP Tours and is being held for the first time since March 2019, having been cancelled last year and then postponed from this spring because of the coronavirus pandemic.