Emma Raducanu said she will depart Melbourne upbeat about her progress on her return from an eight-month layoff despite a crushing second-round defeat at the Australian Open.
The British 21-year-old fell in the second round of the Australian Open for the third consecutive year, losing 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 to Wang Yafan of China.
“I’m very positive, very happy with how my body is,” she said. “I think the wrist in particular was something I struggled with coming back because I just had a setback for a few months, so I couldn’t play until late November again really. Now I feel good. Ankle feels good. If I keep my work consistent I have a good shot. This is obviously only my first trip back.”
Raducanu had trailed by a set and a break playing listless tennis before she gradually found her feet and forced a third set. Just as she took the lead, Raducanu said she started to feel sick on the court, leading to her gagging multiple times between points.
“I think with what I went through last year, you feel awful right now, at some points I couldn’t really see the ball very well, but with everything I went through last year, it’s made me so much tougher,” she said. “There was no way I was going to pull out. She was going to have to beat me, and she did. She served it out.”
Raducanu stressed that her body coped well after this test and her warm-up tournament in New Zealand two weeks ago. The goal this year is to piece together a significant amount of training and matchplay in order to elevate her level.
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“I’m feeling very positive. I really just want to play a full season. The encouraging thing is, even though I played two back-to-back three-setters in Auckland, a three-setter today, body-wise, strength-wise, I didn’t come up with any random niggles. [The vomiting] just happened throughout the match. It was just me throwing up. That’s fine. That’s not normal, but it’s like a one-off.”