Emma Raducanu to return once fully healed, unsure about French Open

There were a lot of positives for Emma Raducanu the past few weeks on clay, but the US Open champion insists she will only play again once she has fully recovered from her back injury.

Raducanu struggled with a back problem at the Madrid Open last week and was initially doubtful for the Italian Open as she admitted that she needed to manage her injury. However, she took to the court at Foro Italico on Tuesday for her opening match against Bianca Andreescu, but the injury flared up again and, after initially taking a medical timeout for treatment on her lower back in the first set, she retired while trailling 6-2, 2-1.

She said:

“I thought that maybe taking one, two days off, it would just go away because a lot of the other small niggles I’ve had, they’ve kind of gone away after taking, like, two days off. Then I got here and I was training, but it just didn’t seem to get better. I was training with some limitations."

She continued:

"I wasn’t moving really, I was just playing where I knew where the ball was coming, just staying in one corner. I think I must have underestimated the unpredictability of competition in a match, you have to react… Bianca is a great player. She’s not going to let up and just hit the ball to you.”

The big one on clay, the French Open at Roland Garros, is next on the calendar with the Grand Slam getting underway on May 22 and it remains to be seen if Raducanu will enter as she is determined to only play when she is 100% fit.