Emma Raducanu said she was “throwing up in my mouth” during the latter stages of her defeat by China’s Yafan Wang at the Australian Open, but remained determined to fight to the last ball.
Raducanu called the doctor to the court early in the third set of her eventful 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 loss. She had her blood pressure checked and then swallowed some pills to help deal with what she later described as “a stomach bug”.
“In the third set I was 30-love up serving,” explained Raducanu, who could be seen wretching into her towel. “Then all of a sudden I just felt so sick, just really like weak and nauseous. Throughout the third set I think everyone could see it was a bit of a battle. Body-wise, I felt fine. It was more I was throwing up in my mouth. Then after the match, it came out. I just had a bit of a stomach bug beforehand.”
Emma Raducanu has to take a time out
This has been quite the tournament for nauseous Britons, after Raducanu’s contemporary Jack Draper vomited in a courtside bin at the conclusion of his first-round five-setter against Marcos Giron. After that match, Draper explained that “it was more kind of psychological stress”, but Raducanu said her situation was different.
“Mentally, I just felt really composed the entire time,” she said. “Even in the first set, when I was making a ton of errors with the wind, I always had this feeling that I was coming back, just [needed to] tidy up the errors.”
Asked whether she had considered a retirement, Raducanu insisted that it was never an option. “I’ve been in that situation before in matches, whether it was with illness or injury, and retired a few times,” she said.
“You feel awful, at some points I couldn’t really see the ball very well. But there was no way I was going to pull out. She was going to have to beat me, and she did. She served it out. I think the last year off and also just with the amount of niggles and everything that I had, the setbacks, it did make me a lot tougher.”
Raducanu’s matches continue to throw up plenty of drama and intrigue. If there has been an anomaly on this trip to Auckland and Melbourne, it was her first-round meeting with Shelby Rogers on Tuesday, which delivered an incident-free cakewalk.
Three of Raducanu’s four matches since her return from a nine-month injury lay-off have gone to a deciding set, and in two of those she struggled to maintain her intensity. Yet such teething troubles are probably to be expected, given the difficulty of simulating matchplay or crowd involvement.
The 1573 Arena was dominated by British support on Thursday, having already played host to matches involving Cameron Norrie and Katie Boulter. In the end, Norrie was the only player to progress to the third round, overcoming Italy’s Giulio Zeppieri, while Boulter and Jack Draper (who was scheduled on Kia Arena) both lost to high-ranked seeds: respectively Qinwen Zheng and Tommy Paul.
Raducanu makes a rousing but short-lived return
Not the result Raducanu would have wanted but it is very good to see her back again!
Emma Raducanu struggles with sickness in three-set Australian Open defeat by Yafan Wang
Raducanu’s next tournament?
Unclear when exactly Raducanu will return but she will be able to use her ‘Special Ranking’ for up to eight tournaments in a one-year period after being out of action for over six months.
That should get her into the upcoming 500 events at the Transylvania Open in Romania and Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open in 18 days.
She could also participate at the Upper Austria Ladies Linz in Austria, which starts January 29.
Emma Raducanu struggles with sickness in three-set Australian Open defeat