"I couldn’t really go anywhere": Emma Raducanu had to use a scooter to get around after surgery after being left struggling to walk

Emma Raducanu opened up about her challenging recovery after undergoing three surgeries that kept her away from the WTA Tour for nine months. The 2021 US Open champion went under the knife to address issues in both of her wrists and her left ankle in May 2023.

The British player shared insights into the weeks and months of recovery following the surgeries, during which she needed a wheelchair to move around. She also faced difficulties with various daily tasks, such as brushing her teeth: “It took a while. I would play, and then I had a patch where I couldn’t play again for two months because of one of my wrists. That was really difficult.”

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A challenging recovery

“I felt like I was getting going and then it was a setback again. You’re so used to being active and moving around all of the time, and then everything is cut off,” Raducanu said. “I couldn’t even use crutches. So, I basically had like a scooter kind of thing. You would put your hands on the front steering thing and your knee on a pad and push yourself around with one leg,” she added.

Raducanu mentioned that the tough recovery reignited her competitive spirit to come back in the best possible shape: “It was really difficult. I couldn’t really go anywhere. I couldn’t go to the supermarket. Imagine being that immobile.”

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“It reignited the fire to get back out there competing and made me appreciate just being healthy and being able to walk around. Being able to brush your teeth so much more.” “I feel reborn in a way. I feel fresh. I feel happy. I feel excited. I feel positive and lighter,” Raducanu stated.

“In training and practising over the last few weeks, I have been hitting the ball really well. I think I’m a better tennis player than I was before the break. “People around me can see I’m playing really well. Physically I’m pushing weight and pushing things that I wasn’t doing before. In my body, I have confidence in it.

Former world No. 10 will return to the courts on January 1, 2024, at the ASB Classic, her first tournament since April at the Stuttgart Open. Her opponent will be the Romanian Elena-Gabriela Ruse (No. 128) coming from the qualifiers but arriving with competition rhythm after two victories over Anna Danilina and Jule Niemeier: “Tennis-wise, it’s about now putting it into a match, which is completely different to practice,” Raducanu concluded just a day before her official comeback.

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