Emma Raducanu will finally be back in a Grand Slam arena on Tuesday, having feared last year that she might lose her battle to regain full fitness.
The former US Open champion is grateful to be at the Australian Open, having revealed the full extent of the struggle which took place after Wimbledon.
‘I was just worried. I started hitting in August and after that, I’d say, the first eight, nine days, I was feeling pain and then it just didn’t go away,’ she recounted, ahead of her first-round match against American Shelby Rogers.
Andy Murray was the only British singles player due to play overnight, with Raducanu one of five who will head into action on day three of the extended first-round programme.
Initially the 21-year-old from Kent started practising with the softer red ball used by younger children as it is easier and less stressful to strike.
Emma Raducanu (above) will finally be back in a Grand Slam arena on Tuesday, having feared last year that she might lose her battle to regain full fitness after her US Open heroics in 2021
She also took different opinions from specialists on why it was taking so long to recover from the minor surgery she had on both wrists back in May.
‘And then I didn’t start hitting again with the yellow ball until pretty much the last week of November,’ she added. ‘I didn’t play for a good few months after (the first setbacks) and then only started picking it up recently, at the back end of November.
‘So I guess to be in the position I am now, only really having had six weeks of training with yellow balls, I’m pretty proud of myself and the team for getting me here.
‘I was always going to feel pain in my wrist but credit to the surgeon, he did a great job.’
The procedures left two-inch marks which are still there just above the wrist on the back of her hands, and have ruled her out of certain professions in future.
‘I guess I won’t be a hand model and I can throw that career away,’ she joked.
‘They are battle wounds but they are healing nicely and they look a lot better now. So it’s just part of the journey. When I’m 80 I can show everyone, ‘These are the battle scars!’ ‘
The ex-US Open champion, who has failed to replicate close to the feat since, is grateful to be at the Australian Open, having revealed the full extent of the struggles after Wimbledon
With Jodie Burrage having gone out in the first round during the inaugural Sunday start of the Open, Raducanu and Katie Boulter are the only British women left in.
While Boulter has become a recognisable figure in Australia, partly due to her relationship with home favourite Alex de Minaur, Raducanu has also found herself regularly being recognised.
‘I walk around, some people come up to me on the street and will be like, ‘Hey, love you, keep going, good luck this week’. And it’s really nice just to get that support,’ she said.
Murray was due to face 30th seed Tomas Martin Etcheverry of Argentina this morning, trying to get the British contingent off the mark following the subsidence of Burrage on what was her main-draw debut in Melbourne. After a qualifying campaign which saw zero Brits out of eight make the main draw, the GB No 2 looked set to provide a morale booster when she swept to the first set against Tamara Korpatsch.
However, the German player then took a questionably long toilet break which lasted seven minutes, and when she came back she surged to a 2-6, 6-3, 6-0 win.
With Jodie Burrage having gone out in the first round during the inaugural Sunday start of the Open, Raducanu and Katie Boulter (above) are the only British women left in the competition
Afterwards world No 93 Burrage took issue with the length of the break, but also admitted she was possibly naive in dealing with the situation against a more experienced opponent.
The conditions also changed in that the wind got up in the middle of the match, with the Surrey player conceding she had suffered ‘panic stations’ when things started to go against her.
Burrage, 24, queried the delay with the umpire as it went beyond the five-minute allotted time for breaks, but a contributory factor was them playing on one of the more remote outside courts. She said: ‘It’s something where you have just got to keep playing matches and get used to how you deal with it when your opponent is changing up the rhythm and trying to disrupt your rhythm, which is what she did in the second and third set.
‘It seemed like every change it was something different, whether it was her shoe or her rackets or towel. I know I’m 24, which in tennis age isn’t that young, but for me I’m a newbie coming up to this level. I’m still learning.’
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