After wining the biggest title of her young career at the 2021 US Open, Emma Raducanu was expected to lead the charge of upcoming stars on the WTA circuit. However, the British star has failed to live up to expectations, and recently opened up on how she deals with adversity.
Raducanu spent most of the 2023 season dealing with wrists and ankle injury, and struggled in her return to the tour this season. Upon her return, the 21-year old claims to be wiser in dealing with her recuperation, and shared how her impatient nature hindered her recovery process.
Hurrying back from injury led to more setbacks, admits Raducanu
"I think the biggest lesson I’ve learnt in terms of injury recovery is not to rush back," said Raducanu in an interview with Marie Claire magazine. "My impatience is probably one of my biggest downfalls because I basically rushed the process of my recovery, and set myself back many months. Instead of taking me four months to return to play, it took me eight, and it took me seven months without hitting balls, when I should have been hitting balls after a month and a half.
"So I think having people who are really strict with you in coming back from injury is important. People who are literally counting every shot that you hit, and making it really scientific not just on feeling, because sometimes your mind overtakes your body, and by pushing more you’re actually setting yourself back.
"So I think having people who are really strict with you in coming back from injury is important. People who are literally counting every shot that you hit, and making it really scientific not just on feeling, because sometimes your mind overtakes your body, and by pushing more you’re actually setting yourself back.
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"I think it’s very easy in tennis to panic, and I’m guilty of it. You feel like you only have 10 years of your career ahead of you, and that it’s going to be over before you know it. Sometimes 21 feels so old, and then I remember that in the timeline of my career I still have 10 years of slams ahead of me - even 15 if I really want.
"And while it goes by very quickly, I’ve only had three years on tour so far, so there’s a lot more learning and developing to do. There’s also a big chunk of life that happens after tennis. We think when we hit 35, our life is over, but there is so much still to come - many people are just starting their life at that point. So, of course I want to make the most out of the years that I have on tour, but I also need to keep in perspective that there are other things in life than just tennis.”
Growing up in a household where soccer was king, my earliest memories are filled with chants from packed stadiums and the rhythm of a ball being passed across neighborhood streets. But somewhere along the way, the quiet elegance and raw emotion of tennis pulled me in. What began as a curiosity became a lifelong passion; not just for the sport itself, but for the stories it tells: of grit, of heartbreak, of improbable comebacks and human resilience.
As a tennis writer, I bring the observational lens of someone who didn’t grow up in the sport, but fell in love with it as an outsider; a perspective that lets me see both its technical beauty and its emotional depth. Over the years working with TennisUpToDate, I’ve had the privilege of reaching more than 3.5 million readers worldwide, with one of my features ranking among the site’s top three articles.
With a background in storytelling and a creative mind always searching for meaning beyond the scoreboard, I aim to craft narratives that go deeper than results and rankings. Whether it’s a rising star breaking through or a veteran fighting off Father Time, I try to capture the heartbeat behind the headlines.
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