When the clay swing started to gain momentum at the Madrid Open in April, things were not going well for Britain’s best female tennis player. During her pre-tournament press conference, Emma Raducanu refused to make contact with reporters at all. She was short and abrupt, batting away questions with as much force as her vicious two-handed backhand.
It turned out she had enough on her mind. The following day, she withdrew from the tournament due to injury and announced that she would be taking an indefinite leave of absence from the tour as her injuries heal. She subsequently underwent three surgeries, one on each hand and one on her left ankle. Her team initially hoped she would be back before the end of the year.
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Raducanu, who was 21 in November, returned to competitive tennis last week in Auckland. She returns to Grand Slam tennis on Tuesday in Melbourne against Shelby Rogers. So much has happened since her 2021 US Open victory, and the biggest question surrounding her comeback is whether she will finally be able to take steps to properly establish herself on the tour.
Injuries are one of the toughest parts of professional sports, immobilizing the world’s fastest runners and driving them far from their craft. Recovery means tedious days of rehabilitation and enormous patience is required as very gradual improvements are recorded. After her operations, Raducanu could barely move for two weeks and after initially returning to court she suffered a major setback.
“I had two wrists and ankles, all in very close succession, so I could have as little free time as possible,” Raducanu said. “Each one is not sweating at all for two weeks. I had a scooter to get around for a while. I couldn’t text anything at all. “
That’s the difficulty of tennis, but long layoffs can sometimes even be helpful. In the recent history of the sport, there are countless examples of players taking time out of the grind and actually taking advantage of their absence.
Sloane Stephens returned to win the 2017 US Open weeks after a one-year layoff; The final, glorious stretch of Roger Federer’s career kicked off that same year with his remarkable Australian Open title. Most recently, Elina Svitolina returned from maternity leave last year refreshed after initially taking a break from the sport in 2022 due to burnout. Many players only need to step off the intense hamster wheel of professional tennis and its extensive travel requirements to gain a true appreciation for their sport.
Another returning player in Melbourne this week is Naomi Osaka, the two-time Australian Open champion, who was away from the competition for 16 months. She gave birth to her daughter Shai in July.
“I’ve taken a lot of breaks over the years. I feel like I think this was the one that finally clicked in my head. I think as an athlete I realized that time is very precious. I used to take that for granted. If that makes any sense. I was young and I felt like I could get back into it when I needed to,” the 26-year-old said.
Ajla Tomljanovic, the Wimbledon and 2022 US Open quarter-finalist and on her way to a comeback after a serious knee injury, says her injury has made her hungrier. “I think that made me want it even more,” she said. “I think probably without realizing it, it just made me emotionally stronger, because you can’t fix yourself if you’re not stubborn about coming back.”
Outside of the sport, Raducanu focused on the challenge of her rehabilitation, but she also enjoyed her life off the field. “It just puts things into perspective. The feeling of not being able to move your body, for example walking to the kitchen to get a snack, I couldn’t do that. And you miss it. You only really realize it when you experience it yourself, no matter how many different athletes say: ‘Be grateful, appreciate that you are healthy.’ Of course it is nice to hear, nice to say, but I feel that it is different until you experience it yourself.”
While most top players have the advantage of gradually improving and adapting step by step to their increasing success, for Raducanu everything changed overnight. At Madrid last year her body had fallen apart and her generous sponsorship deals, coaching deals and form were under constant scrutiny. On the field she played tense, defensive and full of mistakes. For now, though, she seems to be in a much better headspace.
“I feel a lot lighter now than I did for a long time after the US Open,” Raducanu said. “I feel like I’m not playing with a backpack full of rocks. I feel quite light and happy.”
Despite questions about her physical condition, Raducanu has been training and on Friday she enjoyed two sessions with the top two British players. “I was batting with her today, I watched her matches last week, I think it’s absolutely incredible what she’s doing. I mean, to get back to that level already, it’s inspiring,” said Katie Boulter, the British number 1.
Hours later, Raducanu trained with No. 2 Jodie Burrage, also a regular training partner at the National Tennis Center, who received similar feedback. “She was definitely skimming the ball,” Burrage said. “She was right for it.”
During Raducanu’s short career, her rapid change of coaches has attracted a lot of attention – she is joined in Australia by Nick Cavaday, who worked with her for two years from the age of 10 – but whether her body can handle the physical toll of professional tennis is currently a matter of much debate. more important theme in the context of her career.
Since her arrival on the tour in 2021, she has had very few weeks without physical problems, either before or during a tournament. Even as a junior, Raducanu could not handle the physical demands without injury, and these problems have persisted throughout her professional career. In retrospect, her US Open run is even more remarkable, not because she became the first player to ever win a grand slam tournament via the qualifying draw, but rather because her body managed to hold up through the three most intense weeks of her life .
Before her first-round match against Rogers, Raducanu was asked how she would define success at this point in her career. Rather than identifying a particular achievement or title, she was clear. She just needs to stay healthy.
“I think long-term success for me means playing a full season the rest of the year, being healthy and having consistent weeks of training,” she said. “I know my level is there, I just have to keep working on it to make it more consistent. I think that will come with the time in the gym, the time on the court, being able to play the calendar without thinking about, ‘Am I going to have to pull out of this, does that hurt…?’
Then she shrugged. “I think my level, to be honest, is just too good not to get through if I put consistent work together.”