Emma Raducanu says she is “having discussions” about hiring the prominent fitness coach Yutaka Nakamura as she tries to solve the injury problems that have continually hurt her career.
Raducanu will make her return to competition on Friday at the Billie Jean King Cup Finals if she is chosen to compete by the Great Britain captain, Anne Keothavong, after being out for nearly two months due to a foot injury she suffered at the Korea Open in September.
Having undergone surgery on her wrists and ankle last year, the final months of Raducanu’s season have again been affected by her physical frailty. Nakamura is a well-known figure on the circuit, having worked with Maria Sharapova, Naomi Osaka and Kei Nishikori among others, and could be a helpful investment in strengthening her body to withstand the rigours of the tour.
“I think my goal next year is to stay on court longer,” Raducanu said. “This year, I came to top 60 in the world, but I barely played – I think less than 15 events. So yeah, I know if I’m on court and healthy and competing, I can go even higher and further. I think that my athleticism is a strength of mine, but it’s nowhere near its full potential. I’m just looking forward to exploring that further, and yeah, ready to commit to doing that.”
Seven months ago, Raducanu played some of the best tennis of her career as she led Great Britain to an excellent win against France away on indoor clay courts. Raducanu’s victories over Caroline Garcia and Diane Parry were supplemented by a first clay-court victory for the British No 1 Katie Boulter, who outplayed Clara Burel in straight sets.
Having pulled off such a strong result on their weakest surface, competing in the Billie Jean King Cup Finals on indoor hard courts was an exciting prospect for Great Britain. However, Raducanu has played just three tournaments since Wimbledon in July after also skipping most of the US hard-court season before her first-round loss at the US Open. Raducanu says she did not play for four or five weeks after suffering the foot injury on 21 September in Seoul.
After spending some extended time in China with her grandmother, reading more and picking up the piano again, she has been gradually building up her training load over the last few weeks. “While it’s the end of the season for a lot of players, I feel I’m just beginning to kickstart and get things in motion, training really well, training hard, and already building towards next year,” she said. “I’m not really looking to have any more time off. Because of my injury, I’ve already had quite a bit.”
Over the next two weeks, the leading team competitions, the women’s Billie Jean King Cup and men’s Davis Cup, will be played in the same city in successive weeks for the first time in history. The women’s event had originally been scheduled to be held in Sevilla before being moved to Málaga.
In the wake of the “Dana” in Valencia, the torrential rain and flooding responsible for the deaths of 216 people, Málaga was completely shut down by heavy rainfall on Wednesday. The ITF decided to reschedule the planned opening match between Spain and Poland from Wednesday evening to Saturday morning. The decision proved to be correct as many roads in Málaga were temporarily flooded overnight. The players were not allowed on site to train.
For the British team, it meant spending the day inside their hotel working out and amusing themselves on Raducanu’s 22nd birthday. “We actually did some yoga and some core sessions, and it’s kind of good sometimes to have a forced break and lots of team bonding and birthday celebrations, chocolate cake, just a little bit,” said Heather Watson. “But yeah, I think it was more concerning for the country seeing what they have been through recently, which is so tough.”
Normality resumed on a cool, dry Thursday and the competition opened with Japan beating Romania in the opening tie. There is a great opportunity ahead for the team of Boulter, Raducanu, Harriet Dart, Watson and Olivia Nicholls and they will undoubtedly be the favourites in their last-16 tie against Germany. Boulter and Raducanu are ranked higher than Germany’s No 1 player, No 84 Laura Siegemund. The winners of the tie will face Canada, the defending champions, on Sunday.
