Emma Raducanu: Will British No. 1 overcome rock-hard draw and wrist worries as she faces Jelena Ostapenko in Stuttgart?
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Published 18/04/2023 at 08:04 GMT
Emma Raducanu plays for the first time in almost a month as she returns at thePorsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart. What to look for from the British No. 1 as she makes her clay bow of the 2023 season? The former US Open champion opted not to play a Billie Jean King Cup qualifier for Great Britain ahead of Stuttgart, but has been handed a very difficult draw at the tournament.
'Emma's level is there for sure!' - Robson confident on Raducanu ahead of clay season
Emma Raducanu will start her 2023 clay season this week.
The former US Open champion will be competing at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, having received a wild card for the WTA 500 tournament.
It will be Raducanu’s first competitive event since she was beaten in a tight match by Bianca Andreescu in the first round of the Miami Open a month ago.
Will the British No. 1, who opted to skip Great Britain's Billie Jean King Cup qualifier against France last week, take more steps forward after being handed a very difficult draw?
Rock-hard draw for Raducanu
Raducanu made the quarter-finals in Stuttgart last year and if she does the same again she will have made some strong progress.
Raducanu opens on Tuesday, April 18 against another former major winner in Jelena Ostapenko, who won their only previous meeting in South Korea last September. Raducanu retired from the contest trailing 3-0 in the final set in what was her fourth and final retirement of the year.
If Raducanu gets past 2017 French Open champion Ostapenko she faces another big test in world No. 4 Ons Jabeur, who won on clay in Charleston earlier this month. Jabeur and Raducanu have not met on the WTA Tour but have been practising in Stuttgart and played each other in an exhibition match at the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi in December.
Next after Jabeur could be Indian Wells champion Elena Ryabkina. And then awaiting in the semi-finals could be world No. 1 Iga Swiatek.
As draws go they don’t come much tougher, but Raducanu had some promising performances in Indian Wells and also showed flashes in defeat to Andreescu. She will hope to build on those showings and continue to improve further under the guidance of coach Sebastian Sachs.
Has wrist injury been resolved?
This will be only Raducanu’s second season playing on clay on the WTA Tour.
She has said that she is looking forward to the challenge, and she will be hoping to avoid the same niggling injury issues that plagued her clay season a year ago.
The 20-year-old has, though, been managing a wrist problem for the last few months and appeared to be concerned about the issue after Miami.
“I'm able to play in the short term, but the current solutions aren't very viable long term,” said Raducanu.
Raducanu has seemingly opted against any immediate action such as an operation or taking time out to rest the injury, even though clay is a physically demanding surface.
Staying healthy is clearly a priority for Raducanu. Her progress last year was stunted by injury issues and staying on the court seems important if she is to rediscover her best form and climb up the rankings again.
“I feel like this year has been difficult in the sense that I have been managing a few existing injuries,” she said in Miami. “That has been annoying and frustrating because I've been working as best as I can.”
Can Raducanu quickly move past BJK decision?
As Raducanu has been preparing to play in Stuttgart, her Great Britain team-mates were beaten by France in their Billie Jean King Cup qualifying tie.
Raducanu made herself “unavailable” for the contest due to the quick turnaround going into Stuttgart and the switch of surfaces from hard to clay. That she is sponsored by Porsche – who also sponsor the tournament in Stuttgart - may have impacted her decision or even forced her hand.
Raducanu appears to be keen to join the GB team and will need to play for her country if she wants to compete at the Paris Olympics in 2024, as she says she would “love” to do.
But her absence from the recent team seems to have bristled with GB captain Anne Keothavong slightly.
“I think we all know when this tie was going to be played and where she is now,” said Keothavong last week about Raducanu, who had said in Indian Wells that she “didn’t even know” when the qualifier was taking place.
“But it’s irrelevant. We hope she makes herself available for future ties. I know she wants to be part of this team. It was just, on this occasion, it wasn’t the right timing for her.”
After opting out of playing for GB there might be more of an onus on Raducanu to impress in Stuttgart - although the draw has not made things easy – and continue to show signs of moving forward in her development.
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