Emma Raducanu vows to return to WTA tour action only when her back is 'fully right' after Italian Open withdrawal
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ByEurosport
Updated 11/05/2022 at 08:14 GMT
Emma Raducanu struggled with a back problem at the Madrid Open last week and was a doubt heading into the Italian Open this week. She decided to compete at Foro Italico for the first time in her career, but she withdrew midway through her first-round match against Bianca Andreescu as her back issue flared up again. Raducanu says she will now only return when her back is fully recovered.
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Emma Raducanu says she will only return to the WTA tour when her back is "fully right".
Raducanu was hampered with a lower back problem in her Madrid Open last-16 exit against Anhelina Kalinina last week, and it was the same issue that forced her to retire in her opening match of the Italian Open against Bianca Andreescu on Tuesday when the British No. 1 was trailing 2-6 1-2.
The French Open gets underway on May 22, but Raducanu says she has to make sure she is fully fit if she is going to participate in upcoming tournaments.
"I think the last few weeks have been really positive," the 2021 US Open winner told the WTA Tour.
"I’ve learned a lot about myself and my game has definitely improved on this surface.
"But for sure I need to make sure my back is fully right, however long that takes. I need to just keep on it.
"I don’t want to play my next match with a feeling of limitation because I think that I learned my lesson from this week, when to push, and when not to push. Probably today wasn’t right."
The world No. 11 admits she has to learn how to deal with the rigours of the WTA tour in her first full season.
"I thought that maybe taking one, two days off, it would just go away because a lot of the other small niggles I’ve had, they’ve kind of gone away after taking, like, two days off,” she said.
"Then I got here and I was training, but it just didn’t seem to get better.
"I was training with some limitations. I wasn’t moving really, I was just playing where I knew where the ball was coming, just staying in one corner.
"I think I must have underestimated the unpredictability of competition in a match, you have to react… Bianca is a great player. She’s not going to let up and just hit the ball to you.”
She added: "I never really knew how bad it was until I kind of went out there. I’m still learning when it’s right to push my body and push through it, and when’s not.
“I guess that’s something I’m kind of learning at these tournaments. The difference is I’m probably doing it at bigger tournaments, not smaller tournaments on the way up.”
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