As the clay-court swing began to gather momentum at the Madrid Open last April, things were not quite right with Great Britain’s best female tennis player. During her pre-tournament press conference, Emma Raducanu refused to engage at all with the reporters. She was short and abrupt, batting away questions with as much force as her vicious two-handed backhand.
It turned out that she had plenty on her mind. The next day she withdrew from the tournament due to injury and announced she would take an indefinite leave from the tour as her injuries healed. She then underwent three surgeries, one on each hand plus one on her left ankle. Her team initially hoped she would be back before the end of the year.
Raducanu, who was 21 in November, returned to competitive tennis only last week in Auckland. On Tuesday in Melbourne against Shelby Rogers, she will return to grand-slam tennis. So much has happened since her US Open triumph in 2021, and the biggest question surrounding her comeback is whether she will finally be able to take steps towards properly establishing herself on the tour.
Injuries are one of the toughest parts of professional sport, immobilising the fastest movers in the world, taking them far away from their craft. Recovery means tedious days of rehab and immense patience is required as they register very gradual improvements. After her operations, Raducanu could barely move for two weeks and after initially returning to the court, she suffered a significant setback.
“I had two wrists and ankle all in very close succession so I could have the minimal time off possible,” said Raducanu. “Each one is two weeks of no sweating at all. For a period of time, I had a scooter to move around. I couldn’t, like, text, anything. “
Such is the difficulty of tennis, though, lengthy layoffs can sometimes actually be helpful. Throughout the recent history of the sport there are countless examples of players taking time away from the grind and actually benefiting from their absences.
Sloane Stephens returned to win the 2017 US Open weeks after a one-year layoff; the final, glorious stanza of Roger Federer’s career was kicked off by his remarkable Australian Open title the same year. Most recently, Elina Svitolina returned last year from maternity leave refreshed after initially taking a break from the sport in 2022 due to burnout. Many players simply need to step off the intense hamster wheel of professional tennis and its exhaustive travel demands in order to gain a proper appreciation for their sport.
Another returning player in Melbourne this week is Naomi Osaka, the two-time Australian Open champion, who was away from competition for 16 months. She gave birth to her daughter, Shai, in July.
“I’ve taken a lot of breaks throughout the years. I feel like for me, I think this one was the one that finally clicked in my head. I think I realised, being an athlete, that time is really precious. I took that for granted before. If that makes sense. I was young and I felt like I could kind of roll back into it whenever I needed to,” said the 26-year-old.
Ajla Tomljanovic, the 2022 Wimbledon and US Open quarter-finalist who is on the comeback trail after a significant knee injury, says that her injury has made her hungrier. “I think it made me want it even more,” she said. “I think without realising, it probably did make me stronger just emotionally, because you don’t rehab yourself back if you’re not stubborn about getting back.”
Sidelined from the sport, Raducanu focused on the challenge of her rehabilitation but she also enjoyed her life beyond the court. “It just puts things into perspective. The feeling of not being able to move your body, like to walk to the kitchen to get a snack, for example, I couldn’t do it. And you miss it. You don’t really realise until you go through it yourself, no matter how many different athletes say: ‘Be grateful, appreciate being healthy.’ Of course it’s nice to hear, nice to say, but I feel until you actually experience it yourself, it’s different.”
While most top players have the benefit of gradually improving and adjusting to their increasing success step by step, for Raducanu everything changed overnight. By Madrid last year, her body had fallen apart and her ample sponsorship deals, coaching agreements and form were constantly scrutinised. On the court she played tense, defensive and error-strewn tennis. For the time being, though, she seems to be in a far better headspace.
“I feel a lot lighter now than I did for a long time after US Open,” said Raducanu. “I feel like I’m not playing with a backpack of rocks. I feel pretty light and happy.”
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Despite the questions around her physical fitness, Raducanu has been training and on Friday she enjoyed two sessions with the top two British players. “Hitting with her today, I watched her matches last week, I think it’s absolutely incredible what she’s doing. I mean, to come back with that level already, it’s inspirational,” said Katie Boulter, the British No 1.
Hours later, Raducanu trained with the No 2, Jodie Burrage, also a regular training partner at the National Tennis Centre, who had similar feedback. “She was absolutely creaming the ball,” said Burrage. “She was proper going for it.”
During Raducanu’s short career, her rapid turnover of coaches has garnered a lot of attention – she is accompanied in Australia by Nick Cavaday, who worked with her from the age of 10 for two years – but whether her body can withstand the physical toll of professional tennis is currently a far more significant theme in the context of her career.
Since her emergence on the tour in 2021 she has enjoyed very few weeks without a physical problem either before or during a tournament. Even when she was a junior Raducanu was not able to handle the physical load without injuries, and those issues have carried on throughout her professional career. In hindsight her US Open run is even more remarkable not because she became the first player to ever win a grand slam tournament from the qualifying draw, but rather because her body actually managed to hold up across the three most intense weeks of her life.
Before her first-round match against Rogers, Raducanu was asked how she would define success at this point of her career. Instead of identifying a particular achievement or title, she was clear. She just needs to remain healthy.
“I think success to me in the long term is, for the rest of the year, to play a full season, to be healthy throughout, to be able to train consistent weeks,” she said. “I know my level is there, I just need to keep working on it to make it more consistent. I think that will come with time in the gym, time on court, being able to play the calendar, not thinking about: ‘Will I have to pull out from this one, does that hurt …?’”
Then she shrugged. “I think my level, to be honest, is just too good not to come through if I put consistent work together.”