- Raducanu suffered a back spasm in pre-season and before the French Open
- The British No1 received treatment during her quarter-final defeat at Queen’s
- Raducanu admits she is having ‘good days and bad days’ amid the problem
Emma Raducanu admits her troublesome back still requires ‘a lot of work’ but is doing everything she can to get herself ready for Wimbledon.
The 22-year-old suffered a back spasm in pre-season and another just before the French Open, the lingering effects of which are still troubling her. She received treatment during her quarter-final defeat by Qinwen Zheng at Queen’s Club and pulled out of the Berlin Open last week.
She returns here in Eastbourne as she continues to straddle the line between rest, treatment and matches before the big one at SW19.
‘It’s OK, I’m still managing it to be honest,’ said the British No1. ‘I have good days and bad days. I trained a fair bit last week in London and it was good. I was getting a lot of treatment and then woke up pretty stiff at the weekend, took a day off and then trained yesterday and today.
‘But it needs a lot of work and it is up and down. I’m just trying to manage it as best as I can.’
Raducanu overcame a fear of needles to have acupuncture treatment at the French Open, and is trying that and anything else she and her team can think of to quieten the pain.
‘Doing everything: needles, soft tissue, some muscle stimulation stuff, taping, everything,’ she said. ‘It’s just ongoing but it seems to be OK today.’
It is rotten luck for Raducanu, in a year when her fitness record has been excellent, to be dealing with this nagging issue. But she said she transitioned quickly from frustration to problem-solving.
‘I gave myself Friday night (after the Zheng defeat) to be upset, to be frustrated and to vent a little bit,’ she said. ‘I took Saturday Sunday off and then I was like, I’m going to get back on it on Monday and just work and set myself up well for the week, and I actually put a really good week of practising.’
This week by the seaside will be an important measure of where Raducanu’s fitness is at, and she begins her Eastbourne campaign on Tuesday against American world No64 Ann Li.
