Emma Raducanu is still managing an ongoing back issue with Wimbledon now a week away. The British No. 1 suffered back spasms ahead of the French Open, and they reared their head again at Queen’s earlier this month when Raducanu lost in the quarter-final.
Now back in action at the Eastbourne Open, Raducanu has revealed that she is taking action to find a solution before heading to SW19. And she’s reverted to a familiar technique – using needles, even though she has a needle “phobia”.
The world No. 38 is raring to go on the Sussex coast after back spasms forced her to pull out of last week’s WTA 500 in Berlin. Since her last appearance on court in Queen’s more than a week ago, Raducanu has been trying all sorts of things to manage her back.
Speaking ahead of her Eastbourne campaign, the No. 7 seed said: “It’s okay. I’m still managing it, to be honest. I have good days and bad days with it. I trained, I trained a fair bit last week in London and it was good.
“I was getting a lot of treatment and then woke up pretty stiff at the weekend, took a day off and then trained yesterday and today, but it needs a lot of work and it is up and down. So I’m just trying to manage it as best as I can.
“Big time, I’m doing everything, needles, soft tissue, some muscle stimulation stuff, taping, everything. But it’s just ongoing, but it’s okay. It seems to be okay today.”
Raducanu has resorted to needling on multiple occasions this year. Before the French Open, she noted: “At the start of the year I was so scared of needles. It was my biggest phobia. That was the only way I was going to be able to play Australia.”
The British No. 1 suffered a disappointing defeat to Qinwen Zheng in the Queen’s quarter-final earlier this month. She led in the second set but dropped the last four games in a row and went out 6-2 6-4.
After one night of frustration and venting to her mum and her best friend, Raducanu was eager to move on. “Yeah, I went pretty quick into finding a solution,” she explained.
“I think I gave myself Friday night to be upset and to be frustrated and to kind of vent a little bit. But then from Saturday, I took Saturday, Sunday off and then I was like, I’m going to get back on it on Monday and just work and set myself up well for the week, and I actually put in a really good week of practising.”
Raducanu will face Ann Li in her opening match in Eastbourne on Tuesday, where she will see how her back holds up. The 22-year-old had a successful run on the coast last summer, reaching the quarter-final and getting her first career top-10 win over Jessica Pegula.
She added: “I just want to keep kind of working through it and practising through the tournament, I guess. I just want to put myself in the best possible position, level-wise for Wimbledon.
“But playing the matches and competing hard and kind of seeing where my game is at and just like making a few tweaks. But I do want to be more offensive and do things that I know I have to do against the best players.”
