Raducanu leaves Melbourne with no regrets but new desire to ‘stay at the top’

Emma Raducanu has said she has no regrets about taking to the court on Thursday while injured with blisters on her right hand, despite not everyone in her team encouraging her to compete. The British teenager said she intends to use her experience and performance to strive for more success at the Australian Open and beyond, while also admitting “it’s definitely a lot of work to stay at the top”.

“Once I stepped out on the court I’d made my decision,” said Raducanu. “I had the option to withdraw before the match but after everything, the Covid, making it out here, fighting back from the loss last week, I wanted to give it all I had. I’m on the other side of the world! And I know my hand is going to recover in two days. It’s not long-term. I can build on this pretty quickly and start working on my game again.”

Raducanu was speaking after her first senior Australian Open came to an end with a three-set loss to Danka Kovinic in the second round. Raducanu suffered from blisters on her right hand and was forced to spend a large part of the match slicing forehands. Her Australian Open journey may have ended but it has been most instructive for Raducanu as her development continues.

According to Raducanu, the blisters were likely brought on by a combination of different factors, from the amount of time she spent without a racket during Covid to her inexperience with managing humidity and heat: “It’s very rare for me to be that long away from tennis so I think my hands definitely suffered from that. Then coming here you want to make up the hours but I think you need to be smart about it. Also, the humidity – I’m not experienced with why that should be, but it’s good to learn.”

Regardless, other lessons were learnt on Thursday in