Emma Raducanu returns to action at the Abu Dhabi Open on Monday and the Brit feels now is the time to restart her career again from where she left.
The 2021 US Open Champion would like to forget 2023 season as she managed to appear in only 10 matches and ended up with a 5-5 record. Apart from his poor form, the youngster also struggled with injury issues and her season was truncated in April as she had to undergo surgeries on both her wrists as well as left ankle. Raducanu, registered her return at the beginning of 2024 and she claimed wins in two her four matches in the Antipodean, but insists she doesn’t want to rush in terms of regaining top form as it all comes down to incremental progress.
“I’m still finding my feet on the match court, I’m not fully there but that will come with time,” she said while talking to The National. “I’m very patient and very grateful to enjoy what I’m doing.
“I’m just trying to improve my game because I’m not the finished product, far from it. I feel like now is the time to start because I’ve had some illness and injuries over the couple of years since [winning the US Open], so I’m looking forward to working on my game, improving my level and the results will take care of themselves.”
Despite displaying a fairytale run at the Flushing Meadows in 2021 at just 18, three is no question about Raducanu being a work in progress. The 21-year-old reached a career high-rank of WTA #10 in the start of 2022 but she currently hovers at #296.
Raducanu can kick-start her journey to recover the ranking points with a couple of wins in Abu Dhabi although her first matchup will not be as a sailing as it looks with her facing World #36 Marie Bouzkova. If she does get pasts the Czech then she will be up against second seed in the tournament and WTA #6 Ons Jabeur in the R2. But for the Brit, it is all about the rebuilding process and the small incremental betterment.
“I’ve never really had the chance to do proper training weeks back-to-back. For six or seven months, before I ended up having the surgeries, I was only practising one or two hours a day just to limit the load on the wrists,” said Raducanu.
“In a way, it’s frustrating that the last couple of years haven’t been how I’ve wanted but I think we take a lesson from everything and now is the time to start that work, and I’m really enjoying it.”