Emma Raducanu’s blisters are latest setback as she adjusts to grind of tour

If there is anything that Emma Raducanu’s career since her US Open triumph has reinforced beyond doubt it is just how difficult the day-to-day grind of life as a professional tennis player is. The physical load each week is considerable, injury niggles are so common that few players are ever functioning at 100% and only the strongest maintain their spot at the top.

For now, as expected, Raducanu has a long way to go. In the past week in Prague, her latest injury issues are blisters on her foot. A recap of how she has fared since the US Open is largely a long list of such setbacks. She endured illness in her final tournaments of 2020, her off-season was scuppered by Covid, blisters on her hand left her hitting one-handed backhand slices at the Australian Open, in February she was forced to retire in Monterrey after sustaining a hip injury and a stiff back followed in Indian Wells.

These are predictable obstacles for a player attempting to manage the physical demands of the top level despite barely even competing on the lower-level ITF tournaments, but they are also a common theme in Raducanu’s young career. Part of the reason why the 19-year-old had played so few events compared to her peers, even before last year, is because she would continually be sidelined by injury niggles.

Back at Wimbledon, Raducanu referred to the numerous small injuries she sustained that meant she could watch from the sidelines as her peers had advanced up the rankings far more quickly than her. She described herself as a player who had “always been sort of held back by something”. Even as a grand slam title winner, that has not yet ceased.

“She is still young, she hasn’t completed a full year on tour yet,” said Anne Keothavong, the captain of