RADUCANU: I FEEL REBORN
And new mum Osaka is ‘more confident’
EMMA RADUCANU says she feels ‘reborn’ as the former US Open champion prepares to return to action after an injury-ruined 2023 season. The 21-year-old, a former top-10 player now ranked a lowly 298th in the world, makes her competitive comeback at the Auckland Classic one year on from exiting the event in tears after rolling her ankle.
Raducanu has not played at all since April, just before having season-ending surgery on both hands and her left ankle.
She was offered a wildcard for this week’s event in New Zealand, where she will take on a qualifier in round one.
‘I feel reborn in a way,’ she said. ‘I feel fresh, ready, happy, excited. Overall I’m feeling positive and lighter.
‘I actually think I’m a better tennis player than I was before the break. In practice over the last few weeks I’m hitting the ball really well.
‘Physically I’m pushing things that I wasn’t doing before. In my body I actually have confidence, which is really nice and tennis-wise I feel good, too.’ Raducanu’s positive outlook is in stark contrast to the dark days of last summer, when she lay in a hospital bed with both wrists in plaster after surgery and unable to walk following a minor ankle procedure.
‘It was so hard, especially the first few months,’ she said. ‘When you’re so used to being active and moving around all the time, then to all of a sudden have everything just cut off from you.
‘I had two wrists and one foot injured, so I couldn’t even use crutches. It was difficult being that immobile. But it reignited the fire to get back out there competing.’ Not that Raducanu expects to reproduce the form that took her US Open glory in 2021 straight away. ‘Matchwise, it might take a while to adjust to the feeling of pre-match nerves or just match fitness,’ she says. ‘But level-wise I feel really good.’
She will meet former world No1 Caroline Wozniacki or Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina — both mothers who have returned to the tour — if she comes through her opener. Current US Open champion Coco Gauff is also in the field.
Raducanu, who has not won a match on the WTA Tour since reaching the last 16 at Indian Wells in March, will then head to Melbourne to enter qualifying for the Australian Open, which starts on January 14.
Meanwhile, four-time Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka is also on the comeback trail this week after a lengthy lay-off.
Osaka will play Germany’s Tamara Korpatsch in the Brisbane International tomorrow, her first match since September 2022.
The Japanese former world No1, who has spent much of her career fighting mental health battles, returns to action five months after giving birth to daughter Shai.
And the 26-year-old is convinced being a new mum will make her a stronger tennis player.
‘I feel like I’m more confident as a person,’ she said. ‘Shai has definitely helped me with the way I view things.
‘I’m a lot more open-minded and I also feel a lot stronger.’