Photograph: Angelika Warmuth/Reutersĭecisive action needed to be taken because of the quantity of her injuries and her results underlined that entering tournaments half-prepared against the best players in the world was insufficient. Raducanu has suffered a series of injury setbacks since winning the US Open in 2021. The prospect of three surgeries and months on the sideline is a far from ideal outcome for a 20-year-old still at the beginning of her career, but Raducanu’s absence may eventually present a silver lining. Even when she reached the fourth round of Indian Wells in March, beating two top-20 seeds in the fifth biggest tournament of the year, Raducanu was unsure of taking to the court due to her hand injury and a viral infection. This year, she has won consecutive matches only once. Raducanu’s inconsistent preparation has been reflected in her results: she has compiled a losing 15-16 record over the past 52 weeks. While she has consistently described the ailment as a wrist injury for convenience, an issue with her bones at the top of her hands has been the specific problem. The left ankle surgery will address the injury she sustained in New Zealand.īefore each tournament, Raducanu continually described herself as merely “managing” her various injuries and she has constantly limited her time on the practice court between tournaments. At the beginning of this year, Raducanu then rolled her ankle mid-match in her first tournament of the season in Auckland. Most recently, Raducanu struggled with injuries to her hand that forced her to withdraw from the Billie Jean King Cup finals at the end of the last year and cut her season short. ♥️ pt1 /sS7Url5j0p- Emma Raducanu May 3, 2023 After struggling with a back injury during last year’s clay-court season, she suffered a side injury in Nottingham during the first few games of her grass-court campaign and barely returned in time to compete at Wimbledon. Her primary issues have been a constant string of injuries as she tried to adjust to the rigours of professional tennis.

Since her dramatic breakthrough in the summer of 2021, things have clearly not gone well for Raducanu.

Her inability to compete in Madrid meant that, 20 months after winning the US Open as a qualifier without dropping a set, she will fall out of the top 100 next week. Last week, Raducanu cut a forlorn figure in her press conference before the Madrid Open as she attempted to compete in the WTA 1000 event before announcing her withdrawal from the tournament a day later due to a wrist injury. Raducanu expects to return to action sometime this year, but she will only do so when she is ready. In addition to missing Roland Garros, which begins later this month, and Wimbledon in July, the 2021 US Open champion is unlikely to return in time to compete at the US Open in late August. Raducanu will be out of competition for months.

A surgeon's notes on performance