After losing 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 to Bianca Andreescu in the first round of the Miami Open, Emma Raducanu has said that she will take the time to reassess her options regarding the wrist injury she has been nursing during the spring hard-court season.
The British player feels she needs to find a long-term solution to her wrist issue, which began at the end of the 2022 season. "I just need to review after this tournament really and figure out what my next steps are," Raducanu told reporters after her loss on Wednesday.
"We have been managing it, keeping on top of it. I'm able to play in the short term. But the current solutions aren't very viable long term," she added. Now ranked No.72, Raducanu, 20, felt the injury flare up during her training ahead of the Indian Wells.
After making a last-minute decision to play through the injury, she put together her best run at a tournament since winning the US Open, defeating Australian Open semifinalist Magda Linette and No.13 Beatriz Haddad Maia en route to the Round of 16, where she lost to No.1 Iga Swiatek.
It was a confidence-boosting result for Raducanu, who has been snake-bitten with injuries and illness since her US Open win in 2021. "I think that I'm doing the right things day to day, which brings me confidence.
I feel like this year has been difficult in the sense that I have been managing a few existing injuries. Yeah, that has been annoying and frustrating because I've been working as best as I can," Raducanu said.
"I feel like I'm enjoying the competition. Yeah, just really, really happy to be on the match court," she added. Canada's Andreescu can relate to Raducanu's frustration.
Like Raducanu, Andreescu lit up the tennis world as a teenager to win the US Open in 2019, but injuries and mental health concerns have interrupted her competitive rhythm ever since.
"I would honestly really, really like to speak to her because of that, because of our similarities. I mean, she's also Romanian. She was born in Toronto, which is super, super crazy," Andreescu said.
"Definitely I would love to speak to her, for sure. Maybe we can help each other out," she added. Raducanu's next scheduled event is the Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, German, where she has received a main-draw wild card. Main-draw play begins on April 17.