Emma Raducanu waits on Australian Open fitness update after latest setback | Emma Raducanu

Emma Raducanu is heading to Melbourne however faces a nervous wait to see if she will probably be wholesome sufficient to compete on the Australian Open after struggling a sprained ankle in her first event of the 12 months.

On Thursday, Raducanu rolled her ankle initially of the third set in her ASB Classic second-round match in opposition to Viktoria Kuzmova in Auckland. After receiving medical remedy, the 20-year-old performed one level earlier than retiring in tears. Afterwards, Raducanu criticised the “slick” indoor courts that they had been compelled to compete on on account of rain.

She will now go straight to Melbourne forward of the Australian Open, the primary grand slam event of the 12 months, however remains to be awaiting conclusive check outcomes on the severity of her ankle sprain.

Raducanu and her staff are hoping that she will probably be identified with a grade 1 sprain, which might a minimum of give her an opportunity of being able to compete on the Australian Open, which begins on 16 January. If her ankle harm is extra extreme, nonetheless, her possibilities of competing in Melbourne could be distant.

A 12 months in the past, Raducanu’s low season was disrupted after testing optimistic for Covid-19 after which she suffered from blisters in her Australian Open second round loss to Danka Kovinic.

Those opening weeks set the tone for a season full of harm and well being points, ending together with her withdrawal from the Billie Jean King Cup finals in Glasgow, and additional complicating the duty of following up her 2021 US Open victory.

Raducanu has loved what she described as a optimistic low season in 2022 together with her new trial coach Sebastian Sachs and had hoped that her physique could be extra adjusted to the trials of tennis in her second full season. This time, reasonably than any bodily weak point, her progress has been halted by the bitter misfortune of a sprained ankle.