Strange to say about a Grand Slam champion, but it feels as though the career of Emma Raducanu is yet to really get going.
She retired from her quarter-final match at the Korea Open last week with a ligament sprain in her left foot and just like that a season in which she has played only 13 events is in danger of tailing off.
The 21-year-old suffered a succession of injuries in the first couple of years after her US Open title in 2021 and this year her scheduling has been extremely cautious if not downright eccentri
What has become clear is her body is not ready for the relentless demands of the WTA Tour. So Mail Sport spoke to a top physical trainer about what Raducanu must to do to equip herself for the rigours of the tour. His answer was unequivocal.
‘She just doesn’t play enough matches,’ says Kieron Vorster, who has been strength and conditioning coach to players such as former world No 6 Tim Henman, Dan Evans and Wayne Ferreira.
‘I’ve seen her train and she trains hard, she works hard, there’s no doubting that.
‘But you can train as hard as you like — if you don’t have that match fitness, your body is not hardened and robust enough to play match after match after match.
‘You can practice until you’re blue in the face but you can’t replicate match conditions, that intensity and nerves when you’re 4-4 in the third serving at 0-30.’
Despite her being basically injury free this year until Seoul, only two players in the top 100 have played fewer tournaments in 2024 than Raducanu: Karolina Muchova, who began her season in June after wrist surgery, and 34-year-old Caroline Wozniacki, only recently returned to the tour after retiring in 2020.
At times this season she has played her best tennis since winning in New York and is sitting relatively pretty just outside the world’s top 50.
But there have been gaping holes in her calendar: a seven-week break from April to June, including skipping French Open qualifying, and a four-week hiatus between Washington and the US Open. After a first-round defeat in New York she admitted she would look to ‘manage my schedule differently’.
Vorster believes Raducanu is in need of a few home truths. ‘She plays an abbreviated clay court season, because she’s got a long grass court season and hard court season coming up and she doesn’t want to be burnt out or get injured,’ says the 51-year-old.
‘Then she was hurt against Lulu Sun in the round of 16 at Wimbledon, then plays one hard court event, goes to the US Open undercooked and loses first round.
‘I think there could potentially be a lot of ‘yes’ people around her, instead of people telling her what she doesn’t want to hear, ‘You know what, Emma, you need to get out there and play’. She’s a good player. That’s not the issue. But this abbreviated schedule is just mind-blowing.
‘There’s too many people around her. She’s got a guy from IMG (the agency who represent her) travelling with her every single week. The tennis world’s gone crazy: gone are the days where you just have your coach and your physical trainer.’
Raducanu is yet to win more than three matches at the same event since her US Open title. Several times this season, notably at Eastbourne and Wimbledon, she has appeared to run out of steam in the latter stages of the event.
Vorster is not the first to suggest that Raducanu’s fairytale of New York was something of a curse in disguise.
‘It was an unbelievable achievement for her to win the US Open but sometimes I think that could have been the thorn in her side, a poisoned chalice, because she went from hero to zero to hero and now she just doesn’t understand what it takes.’
There has appeared to be a reluctance from Raducanu this year to compete in qualifying events, as she rejected the chance to win her way into the French Open, Toronto or Cincinnati.
‘She turned down playing the Olympics, playing the French Open. At 21 I just think it’s crazy — you should be jumping at the chance. As for not playing qualifiers I’d say to her, ‘If you don’t get a wildcard and you’re not in the main draw, what does that matter? You’re that damn good that you’re going to qualify, and guess what? You’re going to have two to three matches under your belt playing someone in the first round that doesn’t know the conditions and has only been practising when you’ve been playing matches, so it’s a win-win’.’
In terms of the immediate future, Vorster would advise Raducanu to take a leaf out of Andy Murray’s book and put in a brutal pre-season training camp.
‘The first thing I would do is take her somewhere hot with no distractions and do a six-week training block. Take away home comforts and luxuries. Do something different that will kick-start the year.
‘You’ve only got to look at Andy Murray for somebody who made all the sacrifices year after year: train in the heat in Miami, come back for one, maybe two days for Christmas, then he’d be off again to Australia.’
As someone who has worked in British tennis for many years and wishes Raducanu well, the frustration in Vorster’s voice is clear. At times this season it has felt as though Raducanu and her team have wildly overcomplicated the tennis schedule.
The talent is there — we saw that spectacularly in New York three years ago but also in flashes this year. Now all she has to do is play.
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