Products You May Like
British No 1 Emma Raducanu needs a break from the problems she is experiencing as a fledgling on the WTA Tour.
She is going to need two or three years to build into being a regular WTA Tour player… so people will write her off if she goes out in the first or second round of events, and that’s what she will do. That is life on tour. Even the World No 1 loses matches. It’s just a question of waiting, and allowing her to gain and gather experience. Andrew Castle
As the top seed in Guadalajara last week, she played the longest match of the season, from which she was forced to retire because of an upper left leg injury after over 3 hours of gruelling play.
Raducanu was up by a set and served for the match before Australia’s Daria Saville stormed back to force a decider.
The Aussie was 5-7 7-6(4), 4-3, up when Raducanu retired from the match due to injury, and it later emerged that she had hurt her left hip.
The 19-year old had plans to play next week at the WTA 250 Monterrey Open, but has also withdrawn from that in the hope of fully recovering in time for WTA 1000 at Indian Wells the following week.
“I just wanted to say that I’m very sorry that I won’t be able to play for you in Monterrey,” she said on social media. “I was looking forward to playing and staying longer in Mexico.
“I was having an amazing time, but I got hurt in my last match and that means I can’t play.”
She is now in a race to be fit in time for Indian Wells, which starts on 7 March.
Andy Murray, who also battled multiple physical problems early in his career, is sympathetic.
“I don’t think that I’m necessarily the right person to be giving advice on those things,” he said. “She has her team that she’s working with, that she will trust to help her through those moments.
“If she wanted to know my advice, I’m sure she would message or speak to me and contact me, and I’d be more than happy to chat, but I’m not just going to dish out advice on that.”
Andrew Castle believes Emma Raducanu needs two or three years to build into being a regular WTA Tour player
Unfortunately, Raducanu now has a 40 percent retirement rate from WTA Tour events, something she will be hoping to improve over the coming months.
She has been training hard to improve her physical fitness, but her pre-season block in December was disrupted by a bout of Covid-19, and she then struggled with a blister on her racket hand at the Australian Open.
She prioritised a block of training following the tournament in Melbourne before returning this week only to fail to complete her opening round match.
Raducanu’s junior career was affected by a number of injuries, and she will hope these issues are not a sign of things to come as she seeks to establish herself on the main tour.
“She is going to need two or three years to build into being a regular WTA Tour player,” former British No 1 Andrew Castle and British tennis expert told Tennis365. “I know she won the US Open without losing a set, ten matches, coming through qualifying and it is remarkable.
“That was an illustration of talent and it was almost an aberration, some madness, that she went ahead and won that.
“So to ask people to be patient [with her] now, I don’t think they really understand.
“So people will write her off if she goes out in the first or second round of events, and that’s what she will do.
“That is life on tour. Even the World No 1 loses matches.
“It’s just a question of waiting, and allowing her to gain and gather experience.
“Also to adjust to what is pretty rarified air [around here]. She can’t go and do anything like she used to.
“You are doing your A levels one minute, and no one has heard of you, and now you have money, glory and fame instantly.
“I’m not feeling sorry for her, but it’s a major test,” Castle added.
These days, Raducanu, who is ranked 12 in the world, can expect to receive a first-round bye at tournaments so, for Indian Wells, she has a little extra recovery time as she probably will not play her first match until 11 or 12 March.