Emma Raducanu’s injury scare could derail her best shot at Wimbledon ...Middle East

WIMBLEDON — If anyone thought that fraught whispers of a British injury on the eve of Wimbledon died out with Andy Murray’s retirement, think again.

With just three days to go until the first ball is struck at the All England Club, Britain’s best hope of success is struggling to make it onto the practice court and was even spotted in an orthopaedic boot.

Emma Raducanu’s return to the upper echelons of the sport is an interesting tale of reversion to what worked for her years ago, including rehiring a familiar face and the return to a style of tennis in which she feels most comfortable, but it may all be academic.

Raducanu did not turn up to train on Thursday at Aorangi Park, Wimbledon’s practice facility, and she didn’t even have a court booked since Monday. She was even spotted on Wednesday with an orthopaedic boot on her right leg, and it is understood that she is managing a niggle.

It would be significant letdown if Raducanu were to miss out on Wimbledon again, having sat out the 2023 edition after triple surgery on her ankle and both wrists. And it would be particularly disappointing given she has never found such form ahead of a grand slam, reaching the final of Queen’s two weeks ago.

“I have just been dealing with a few niggles over the past few weeks,” Raducanu said after defeat to Donna Vekic in just her third professional final. Few players are ever fully fit, but this latest right leg concern does appear to be new.

But if she can make the start line and play Wimbledon close to full fitness, Raducanu is a bit of a dark horse on the grass.

“She has still got a lot of runway ahead in tennis if she decides to use it. Especially on the grass, because there’s no question in my mind this is her best surface,” her former coach Mark Petchey told Sky Sports this week.

She proved as much at Queen’s, beating two top-20 players en route to the final in Sorana Cirstea and Iva Jovic, both in straight sets on the grass that most players regard as a novelty rather than an opportunity. It took her to a second final of the year, before which – staggeringly – her US Open victory had remained her only senior final in nearly five years of pro tennis.

And that 2021 season, when she also reached the fourth round of Wimbledon, seems to have been the inspiration for her resurgence.

Firstly, she brought back Andrew Richardson. “Flex”, as he is known to almost everyone in tennis, was the 6ft 7in figure in the box for her US Open triumph. He was understood to have been sacked shortly afterwards at the behest of Raducanu’s father Ian, who has been an influential figure in his daughter’s career and Richardson is by no means the only coach whom he has terminated.

But this axing left a deep wound between two families who had known each for the best part of a decade.

Raducanu healed that rift when she reached out to Richardson for a spring training week in Alicante, where he is now based. The time spent together went so well that she re-hired him a few weeks later.

He is the long-term replacement for Francis Roig, a former coach of Rafael Nadal’s, whose efforts to implement a new game style on Raducanu were his downfall, fired in January.

“There were a few coaches that tried to change my game style, which influenced me in a really bad way,” says Jelena Ostapenko. The Latvian is a good case study because like Raducanu, she won a shock maiden slam (although Ostapenko turned the ripe old age of 20 during her 2017 French Open win), and has not added to it since.

“The kind of player like her, she was hitting the ball, she was going for the shots, and that brought her results. Everyone has tough times, especially after winning a grand slam, for her it was also not easy time, for me, it was not easy time.

“The big mistake for the coaches is when they come in and they try to teach the players to not hit the ball, to do the top spin, and it’s a big mistake because the player also has to say how she feels, and if she feels like it’s not working, they should like go with the player feeling, and especially that brought good result for her. Why should you change anything?.”

What a moment! Emma Raducanu is through to her first ever semifinal at @QueensTennis, defeating Rakhimova 6-3, 7-5. #HSBCChampionships pic.twitter.com/2hvG8hSqZN

Roig wanted his charge to be more of a grinder, able to hit heavy balls cross-court and wear down opponents – but Raducanu herself prefers to play on instinct, close to the baseline and trying to hit winners early to the corners of the court in the rally.

“We have been working on […] the brand of tennis that I really want to play.”

It is exactly how she played during that dreamy summer of 2021, when a different generation of balls seemed to suit her slightly underpowered game, and confidence was flowing through every vein in her body.

But even if Raducanu refuses to become a grinder, she does still need to have a Plan B, something her best friend on tour and regular practice partner Fran Jones knows.

“Her game style is one that helps me improve, and vice versa,” Jones says, when asked why they often hit together at majors.

“I’m someone that mixes it up a lot, that is a game style that she’s maybe struggled with a little bit more previously.

“And she takes time off the ball, which is something that I struggle with a little bit more.”

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Of all the majors though, Wimbledon is the one where time can be taken away most effectively. The fast, low-bouncing surface means that one good shot is often all that is required to win a point, where as on clay the ball would hold up and allow a defensive player to extend the rally and force a mistake.

That plays into Raducanu’s hands, and indeed her feet: despite the injuries, she remains an excellent athlete and has played on grass more than the majority of players, some of whom arrive at Wimbledon with only two or three matches on the surface in their entire lives.

For that reason, it remains her best chance of adding a second grand slam title. Excitement was starting to creep into the voices of even the more sober observers within the game. Then the injury doubts surfaced, and here we are again, just hoping she can make the start line.

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