Emma Raducanu was told to pull out of the Australian Open by members of her team before playing her second round match, the youngster has revealed.
The teenager crashed out of the competition at the second hurdle, losing to world number 98 Danka Kovinic over three sets in Melbourne.
In her first Grand Slam since her shock victory at the US Open, Raducanu was unable to produce another memorable campaign Down Under.
She has now revealed, though, that she was dealing with a painful problem which meant she could not use her forehand properly throughout the entire match.
The 19-year-old had blisters on her hand which were causing her so much pain that there were some members of her team who advised her to pull out.
She decided to plough on and even won the second set to level the match despite having to have on-court treatment to help ease her discomfort.
But Raducanu wasn't able to complete the comeback instead falling to a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 defeat at the hands of the Montenegrin.
After the match, she said: "Before the match there were people in my team who didn’t want me to play.
"I fought so hard just to come out to Australia and play here, so I just left it all out there on the court."
She went on to say that, during training, she had purposely avoided hitting any forehands or serves so she could preserve her hand as best as she could for the match against Kovinic.
The match was just five games old when Raducanu had to call for treatment, and was seen visibly wincing in pain as she received medical attention at the side of the court.
She was too hampered to do anything about Kovinic's comeback to win the first set, but found another level while playing through the pain barrier to break her opponent twice and level the scores.
Raducanu didn't have enough left to see out the tie, though, and her Australian Open run came to an end earlier than she might have hoped.
Now she is out of the draw in Melbourne, the Briton says she plans to "catch up" on the pre-season fitness training she missed out on while isolating after returning a positive Covid test in December.
