"I'm really scared of them": Emma Raducanu faces up to needle phobia to play in French Open

Britain’s Emma Raducanu shares details about the treatment she is going through to stay fit ahead of the French Open. The second Grand Slam of the year starts on Sunday, and players from all over the world will participate to showcase their talent and secure the ultimate prize.

Raducanu will begin her campaign in Paris with the match against China’s Wang Xinyu in the round of 128 on Monday. Talking ahead of the competition, the former world number 10 detailed that she is receiving acupuncture treatment to stay fit. The one-time Grand Slam winner also explained how difficult it has been for her because she is ‘scared’ of needles.

“I would say the one before Australia was worse,” she said as quoted by Yahoo Sports. “I feel like this one I kind of caught before it fully locked up. So I think the treatment is a lot of it with the physios, a lot of it with heat. Been doing some needling. At the start of the year I was so scared of needles. It was my biggest phobia. That was the only way I was going to be able to play Australia. So since then, I’ve been kind of dipping my toes into it because I know it helps, even though I’m really scared of them. That’s how I’ve been trying to manage it.”

Raducanu also explained her point of view about pushing certain limits, especially when it comes to dealing with fitness problems. “We always push on through because there’s no real breaks in the season,” she said. “So it does kind of hurt us sometimes because we’ll probably do some more damage. I know from personal experience with my wrists, I was struggling for seven months with them before I ended up having surgery. I just kept pushing through because people were telling me I wasn’t tough enough. When in reality I knew there was pain, and I knew it felt like more than just soreness. So I wish I would have listened to myself sooner. I would have saved myself maybe like eight months, 12 months of struggling. But I guess I can learn from that. Now I am a little bit more astute when it comes to what pain is manageable and what pain should be taken more seriously.”