How Emma Raducanu went from being in casts to reaching Wimbledon 2nd week in 1 year
Emma Raducanu, the 21-year-old tennis sensation from Great Britain, beat ninth seed Maria Sakkari of Greece 6-2 6-3 in the third round of Wimbledon. She has thus reached the second week of the tournament and will face Lulu Sun in the fourth round on Sunday, 7 July.
Emma Raducanu endured a difficult 2023:
Raducanu, who stormed onto the world of tennis by winning the US Open title as a teenager in 2021, had to live through difficult times last year. She had to withdraw from the Madrid Open owing to a wrist injury and underwent wrist and ankle surgeries thereafter.
As a result, she missed the remainder of the year, recuperating from the surgeries. She had not, however, been particularly successful in the tournaments preceding her injury. She lost in the second round of the Australian Open in 2023 and then lost in the first round of both the Miami Open and the Stuttgart Open, thereby having a disastrous season.
She said in an interview with The Guardian,
"It was horrible. Like, it was horrible. I think I’m just so grateful to be on the other side of it"
Her sensational US Open triumph had started to seem a distant memory by the end of 2023. However, she has turned things around since then and is having a much better year this time around.
She lost in the second round of the Australian Open in 2024 and reached the third round of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells. She reached the quarterfinals of the Stuttgart Open and then the semifinals of the Nottingham Open. She started her grass-court season on a promising note too, reaching the quarterfinals of Rothesay International in Eastbourne.
Her current ranking is 135th in the world, which is a far cry from the career-high of 10th that she experienced almost exactly a couple of years ago, in July 2022.
Recent signs have been encouraging and show that she is recovering from her ill-fortune. Raducanu is still only 21 and should have a long career ahead of her. With due respect to Lulu Sun, who has come through qualifiers to reach the round of 16, Raducanu will be the favorite to win the match and go to the quarterfinals.
Reaching the last eight will give her a fair chance of winning the title or at least finishing as runner-up. It remains to be seen whether the Brit is able to continue her good run on her home soil and get closer to winning the title. Either way, her journey towards gaining lost ground has already begun.