Emma Raducanu

[abzmike]

Yes the PC was bad. In her defence it was to the Mail, and they have been rather gunning for her. However, although she is still young, she is going to need to toughen up. Those endorsemetns are going to go away as quickly as they arrived if she doesn't get her body and mind ready to play decent tennis, and also manage the media stuff more than turning up for photoshoots and exepcting it to be a lovely day out - it's work, she's getting loads of money and needs to knuckle down. Again, it's down to her team to guide her through it.

[Ohio7274]

Looks like poor Radu is seriously out of action:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tennis/2023/05/03/emma...

[rjfp1962]

Ohio7274 said:

Looks like poor Radu is seriously out of action:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tennis/2023/05/03/emma...

Just heard this too.. That's not good...!
I didn't know her injuries were in a bone of both hands..

[UTH]

And for anyone without Telegraph sub: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/65469123

Certainly feel for any sports person who just can't get beyond injuries, must be so disheartening.

[abzmike]

Might as well get it fixed all at once.
Doubt she'll be seen again this year though.

[limpsfield]

I'm not a big fan of tennis but, like plenty of people, I watched Raducanu's win two years ago at the US Open.

How hard must it be to have faced the physical and psychological challenges she has since then - and at such a young age.

Just when you think you are set to be one of the next greats and have the world at your feet.

What does surprise me are some of the snidey readers' comments about her - e.g. at The Times online, and the odd one on here - whenever there is an article about a setback. People are weird.

Must be tough again for her missing the upcoming major tournaments.

[g4ry13]

Taking into account her ranking, would she have been eligible to play Wimbledon / French Open? Or would it rely on a wild card or qualification?

[nickfrog]

She would have been likely to get a WC, at least for Wimbledon.

[Stan the Bat]

Looks as though these are treatable though, so hopefully not as bad as it could have been.

[swisstoni]

Stan the Bat said:

Looks as though these are treatable though, so hopefully not as bad as it could have been.

I think her problem is that she’s never taken enough time out to properly sort all her physical problems out and I hope now she will.

She’s tumbled down the rankings now anyway so there’s not a lot to be lost from taking sufficient time out.

I still think there’s a top 10 player in there somewhere.

[Frimley111R]

How she our number one female player?

[nickfrog]

Because she is the highest ranked British female player for now.

[pincher]

Well, I’ll eat a bit of humble pie - I always thought that her injuries were a convenient excuse but it looks like she has been suffering for a while.

I do still think she lucked out in the US Open but having to have ops on both hands isn’t going to be much fun, even if they aren’t enormously major ops.

Will be interesting to see how she comes back from this and indeed, if she can.

[Frimley111R]

nickfrog said:

Because she is the highest ranked British female player for now.

But aside from the US Open she's lost virtually every match she's played since then. Do we really not have anyone with a better average success rate than her?

[nickfrog]

https://www.wtatennis.com/rankings/singles

Raducanu on 5/5 W/L whereas J. Burrage on 11/5 but I assume mostly lesser events with fewer points.

Edited by nickfrog on Thursday 4th May 08:45

[deckster]

Frimley111R said:

nickfrog said:

Because she is the highest ranked British female player for now.

But aside from the US Open she's lost virtually every match she's played since then. Do we really not have anyone with a better average success rate than her?

I'm not sure you understand the concept of a world ranking.

[swisstoni]

nickfrog said:

https://www.wtatennis.com/rankings/singles

Raducanu on 5/5 W/L whereas J. Burrage on 11/5 but I assume mostly lesser events with fewer points.

Edited by nickfrog on Thursday 4th May 08:45

Raducanu’s win got me back into watching tennis after many years of not bothering. The standards of the top women are phenomenal.

[nickfrog]

swisstoni said:

Raducanu’s win got me back into watching tennis after many years of not bothering. The standards of the top women are phenomenal.

You're right. 25 years ago the first rounds were a formality but now not so much.

Iga vs Sabalenka hopefully this week should be a massive fight if it happens!

[rjfp1962]

Best case scenario for this year I'd say is her being fit for the US Open - Begins on the 28th August....

[McGee_22]

I think this lays to rest any accusations of being mentally up to the challenge of the matches she’s played. Any elite athlete will tell you that 100% performance cannot be achieved with any painful injuries and any sports psychologist will tell you that chronic injuries can really affect performance.

As to her US Open win being a fluke - no way. I had watched ER since the ‘Battle of the Brits’ competition during Covid lockdown, and was fortunate enough to watch every match, including the qualifiers, of that US Open.

She qualified, won 10 matches in a row in two weeks and did not drop a set, and if you have a mind to, sit down and watch each match and tell me in which match she got lucky, or her opponent folded, or she simply fluked it.

I’ll save you the time if you like - she simply played with no injuries and no fear. That’s how good Emma Raducanu can be.

Whether she recovers fully from those operations is anyone’s guess - remember how powerful Laura Robson was getting as a teenager and, like ER, just into her early twenties? Olympic silver medalist with Andy Murray at 18, number 27 in the world at 19 then struck down by successive injuries leading to early retirement.

Let’s hope ER can recover but whether she does or doesn’t she won a Grand Slam from qualifying without dropping a set - it wasn’t a fluke, it was fearless, excellent tennis and it should not ever be downplayed.