Emma Raducanu: I overcame illness to battle through to French Open second round
By Andy Sims, PA, Paris
Emma Raducanu admitted she was battling an illness as she came through a three-set marathon to book a blockbuster second-round meeting with defending champion Iga Swiatek at the French Open.
The 22-year-old was leading China’s Wang Xinyu 6-5 in the first set when she called for the doctor, rubbing ice on her cheeks and round her eyes as she had her blood pressure checked.
There were fears that Raducanu, who has had a history of injury and illness issues throughout her career, would have to retire from the match.
But after three minutes of treatment, she came back on to the court and confidently served out the set to love.
Wang rallied to take the second set but, in front of a big crowd on a cramped Court Eight, Raducanu hit back to complete a gutsy 7-5 4-6 6-3 victory in two hours and 44 minutes – the joint-longest match of her career on clay.
Raducanu, who came into the tournament managing a back problem, said: “I think I’m actually really proud of today’s match, more so than a lot of the matches that I played recently or in general, because I woke up and I felt really sick, to be honest.
“I felt bad from the morning. I was just trying and fighting through that. It was really difficult.
“You know, in the first set, I just felt it straight away and it didn’t really go away throughout the whole match.
“To have kind of come through that and overcome how I was feeling, I’m really happy with and I didn’t let it kind of, you know…it would have been easy to kind of let it drag me down.
“I don’t know why I’ve struggled today. The last few days, I’ve just not really been feeling great.
“I guess I’m managing a few things. I’m glad I can have some rest and hopefully rest up before playing Wednesday.”
She will certainly need to be in top condition when she faces Swiatek, who routed Raducanu 6-0 6-1 in just an hour and 10 minutes at the Australian Open.
“I feel like Iga’s always played really well when we have played,” added the 2021 US Open champion.
“I’m looking forward to kind of going out and playing her again. I think in the last month, I have made good strides with my game and my mentality, as well, big time.
“I think this time, yeah, it’s great. I get another crack at the best in the world and I’m looking forward to playing on a big court probably as well.”
Four-time champion Swiatek had earlier stretched her winning streak at the French Open to 22 matches, the Polish world number five beating Slovakia’s Rebecca Sramkova 6-3 6-3.