Emma Raducanu admits she was 95% sure she would lose her latest match after more injury woes

Emma Raducanu has been knocked out of the Madrid Open after yet more injury problems hampered her latest performance.

The British number one required treatment on her back at the end of the first set, before losing the round of 16 match 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 to Ukraine’s Anhelina Kalinina.

Raducanu is yet to reach beyond the quarter-finals of any tournament since her historic US Open win back in September 2021.

The 19-year-old had been looking for her first run of three straight wins since Flushing Meadows, after convincing victories over Tereza Martincová and Marta Kostyuk in her first two matches at the Madrid Open.

However, after losing the first set to Kalinina, Raducanu revealed she was “struggling” with a back issue and despite a strong comeback in the second set, the Ukrainian came out on top to secure her place in the next round against Switzerland’s Jil Teichmann.

“I would have given myself a five percent chance of winning that match,” Raducanu admitted after her Madrid Open loss. “For it to almost happen, I think that was a positive thing.”

Since her history-making win at the US Open, the Brit has skyrocketed into the spotlight and risen dramatically up the world rankings.

Before she made her WTA Tour debut at the Nottingham Open in June 2021, Raducanu was ranked 366th in the world and despite struggling with her form of late, she has climbed to 11th, right on the cusp of the top ten.

The British number one’s best result since she became the first qualifier to win a Grand Slam were two quarter-final finishes.

The first came at the Transylvania Open, where Raducanu had hoped for an iconic victory on the home soil of her Romanian father and a meeting with her tennis idol Simona Halep.

However, she lost out to