London (AFP) – Former US Open champion Emma Raducanu “plans to play” at Wimbledon on Monday despite battling with injury problems heading into her home Grand Slam.
Raducanu hasn’t been able to play a competitive match since losing the Queen’s Club final against Donna Vekic on June 14. The British number one has been struggling with a right lower leg problem for several weeks and cut short a practice session on Saturday, sparking fears she would be forced to pull out of Wimbledon. Raducanu was spotted wearing a protective boot on Wednesday and did not train on Thursday or Friday.
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But the 23-year-old took part in a short practice session on Sunday and is hopeful she can recover in time to feature at the All England Club. Raducanu, who won the US Open as a teenage qualifier five years ago, is due to start her Wimbledon campaign as the 30th seed against Croatia’s Antonia Ruzic on Court One on Monday.
“I’m going to do everything with my team in terms of treatment. That’s the plan right now, to play,” Raducanu told reporters at Wimbledon. “I have a lower leg niggle that I’ve been dealing with since before Queen’s, actually from the back end of the clay-court season. Queen’s, during that week, was a lot of load for me. Five matches after having not competed for a while. But I’m just managing it with my team as best as I possibly can, exhausting all options and doing what we can.”
Raducanu’s season has been ruined by a viral illness that left her on the sidelines for several weeks, adding to an injury-plagued period since her stunning breakthrough triumph in New York in 2021.
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