“Exhausted” Raducanu to focus on recharging after chastening defeat at Madrid Open

Given all that she has been through physically over the past twelve months, Emma Raducanu has put her body through a lot in the last fortnight.

Today, at the Madrid Open, it all caught up with her as she suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of Argentinian qualifier Maria Lourdes Carle.

It was evident throughout the contest that Raducanu was struggling with significant fatigue, as she was well under par in the Spanish capital and there was none of the fighting spirit that has been a consistent hallmark of her tennis over the past two weeks.

After the match, she confirmed that was indeed the case and spoke of the need to rest and recharge after a hectic schedule of six matches in twelve days.

“I would say the last few weeks have been a lot,” the former US Open champion told press following the loss.

“I’m going to recharge for a bit. I think from the performance today it was very clear that mentally and emotionally I was exhausted.

“I was trying to push through and I was just unable to push through today. I guess the sport is just pretty brutal.”

It is worth remembering that Raducanu is still in the early months of her comeback after an eight-month injury lay-off during which she had surgery on both wrists and an ankle.

Since her return, she’s won nine of her 16 matches – including notable victories over Caroline Garcia and Angelique Kerber – while pushing the likes of Elina Svitolina and Iga Swiatek close.

In the past twelve days alone, Raducanu has won four of her six matches. She has opened up her clay-court season superbly, earning four excellent wins before falling short against Swiatek in a high-quality contest in Stuttgart.

Raducanu was the driving force behind Great Britain’s historic Billie Jean King Cup win against France a little over a week ago, and she has leapt 82 places up the WTA rankings in the past seven days despite her heroic efforts in Le Portel not being worth any ranking points.

In short, she has had an excellent couple of weeks and a more-than-admirable return to competitive action this year.

physical and mental fatigue catches up with raducanu in madrid

Make no mistake, this was a chastening defeat and a humbling reality check for Raducanu, as she struggled to adjust to the high-altitude conditions in Madrid just as much as she did with her own physicality.

But it is important to view this loss in the wider context of Raducanu’s season.

The former world No 10 is still building her body back up to the levels of fitness required for the weekly grind of the WTA tour.

“The last few weeks have been a lot,” Raducanu continued.

“Starting from the Billie Jean King Cup, I haven’t stopped. It’s just been back-to-back and I was very happy being able to help carry the team in the BJK Cup, then straight to Stuttgart with no rest, then straight here and trying to adapt to the conditions which are very different because it’s outdoors and I was playing indoors for the last month.

“Many factors have made it very difficult to fully compete today but overall I’ve been playing pretty well.”

All in all, that is a very fair summation from the world No 221.

Currently, it is clear that Raducanu can still only take a certain workload at a time. It is also pertinent to note that her coach, Nick Cavaday, was unable to join her in Spain.

In hindsight, it would have been sensible for her to skip Madrid this week and use the intervening days for some much-needed rest and physical conditioning.

But such was the level Raducanu had reached recently, it would have been a tough call to miss a tournament of the Madrid Open’s calibre and prestige – one at which she put in a promising showing in her only previous appearance two years ago.

To that end, perhaps a straight-set first-round defeat is in fact in Raducanu’s best interests right now.

She will leave Madrid disappointed and somewhat bruised by such a one-sided defeat after having played so well over the past two weeks.

But once the dust settles on her short stay in Madrid, Raducanu should look back at this period with immense pride and satisfaction.

She has found arguably her best tennis since winning the 2021 US Open, and – based on that evidence – there is likely to be much more to come from Raducanu over the course of the season.

But not before she has benefitted from some much-needed rest and a recharging of the batteries.

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