Emma Raducanu's Australian Open Journey and Fitness Recovery
By Shrivathsa Sridhar
MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Emma Raducanu suffered a chastening 6-1 6-0 defeat by Iga Swiatek in the Australian Open third round on Saturday but the Briton said she was grateful to be fully fit and playing at a high level again after overcoming a succession of injuries.
Raducanu has not been able to kick on from her U.S. Open win in 2021 due to her fitness issues, and the 22-year-old missed five events during the WTA Asian swing last year after spraining ligaments in her foot.
Coming into the new season, she missed a tune-up tournament in Auckland with a back issue but hit the ground running at Melbourne Park, beating 26th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova and former French Open semi-finalist Amanda Anisimova.
Five-times Grand Slam champion Swiatek proved an altogether different challenge, however, and while Raducanu won only one game against the world number two at Rod Laver Arena she still took positives from her first tournament since mid-November.
"Three weeks ago when I was in Auckland, at the end of last year, I was doing pool rehab," Raducanu told reporters.
"To be on a court playing matches and competing is something I have to be grateful for. I started hitting when I came here 18 days ago. I have to take a positive that I was able to beat two top opponents in the first two rounds.
"But I think today, no excuses of the back or physically. Yeah, I didn't play well. She played very well. I think, given the preparation we had, we have to be grateful to be in this position.
"Of course, I have a lot of things to take as feedback and work on."
Raducanu said she was looking to for more consistency in 2025 and identified her serve as something that needed a bit of work after being broken five times by Swiatek on Saturday.
"I'm going to look back and be like, I learned a lot and got a lot of feedback on what I need to do better," she said.
"I think the thing I want to improve is serving. The first two matches I got away with it against two top players because I was able to defend and move, use the rest of my game.
"But I think that needs to improve."
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Melbourne; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
