Raducanu vows to return only when her back is 'fully right'

Emma Raducanu says she will only return to the WTA tour when her back is “fully right”.

The French Open gets underway on May 22, but Raducanu says she has to make sure she is fully fit if she is going to participate in upcoming tournaments.

“I think the last few weeks have been really positive,” the 2021 US Open winner told the WTA Tour.

“I’ve learned a lot about myself and my game has definitely improved on this surface.

“But for sure I need to make sure my back is fully right, however long that takes. I need to just keep on it.

“I don’t want to play my next match with a feeling of limitation because I think that I learned my lesson from this week, when to push, and when not to push. Probably today wasn’t right.”

The world No. 11 admits she has to learn how to deal with the rigours of the WTA tour in her first full season.

“I thought that maybe taking one, two days off, it would just go away because a lot of the other small niggles I’ve had, they’ve kind of gone away after taking, like, two days off,” she said.

“Then I got here and I was training, but it just didn’t seem to get better.

“I was training with some limitations. I wasn’t moving really, I was just playing where I knew where the ball was coming, just staying in one corner.

“I think I must have underestimated the unpredictability of competition in a match, you have to react… Bianca is a great player. She’s not going to let up and just hit the ball to you.”

She added: “I never really knew how bad it was until I kind of went out there. I’m still learning when it’s right to push my body and push through it, and when’s not.

“I guess that’s something I’m kind of learning at these tournaments. The difference is I’m probably doing it at bigger tournaments, not smaller tournaments on the way up.”

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