Emma Raducanu makes worrying injury confession ahead of Iga Swiatek showdown

The positive vibes were flowing for Emma Raducanu as she made it through to the third round of the Australian Open for the first time in her career, but her press conference served up some familiar concerns.
Raducanu showed impressive battling qualities as he beat America’s Amanda Anisimova 6-3, 7-5, with her ability to stay in points when he big-hitting opponent was unleashing some fearsome firepower making this one of Raducanu’s best Grand Slam wins since her memorable 2021 US Open victory.
Yet the ongoing fitness issues that have been a theme of Raducanu’s career since that win in New York three and a half years ago are again concerning her in Melbourne.
She was forced to pull out of her opening tournament of 2025 in Auckland due to injury but insisted the back spasm she suffered was very much a fleeting issue.
Now it appears to be a little more than that, as she was forced to call the trainer onto the court for a lengthy period of treatment in the match against Anisimova and then spoke in uncertain terms as she was asked if she would be ready for her mouth-watering third round encounter with Iga Swiatek.
“I haven’t fully investigated it yet, but hopefully it will be okay,” said Raducanu as she was asked about her back problem.
“I think it’s almost to be expected when you haven’t played a match in so long, and then to have two really physical ones. I think small niggles are going to come up here and there. I’m just hoping that it is that.
“I was able to push past some pain today but I’m going to just try and recover as best as possible over the next day.”
A back niggle may not be seen as a concerning issue for some players, but that story is very different when Raducanu is the player carrying the problem.
This 22-year-old has been beset by physical problems in recent years and there have been some accusations that she is less than willing to take to the court when she is struggling with an injury.
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Raducanu took some coaching advice from Mark Petchey prior to her US Open win and the former coach of Andy Murray gave her some pointed advice earlier this month as he urged her to battle through the pain barrier to get on court.
“I hope for Emma’s sake that she can play the next six months without missing a tournament, whether she’s hurt or not,” Petchey told JeffBet.
“I think that she needs to kind of go across the Rubicon and play every week, regardless of how she feels, regardless of the outcome of the result, regardless if she loses.
“I think she just needs to go and play and get over that because I think there is a chance that it could morph into something a little bit more serious on that scale. I think that there’s a very real need to just play. I know that some of the results may not be great and if she’s obviously significantly injured, there’s a chance of doing some real damage to her body. Then obviously she has to pull the rip cord.
“My advice would be to just go and play and see what you’re capable of because she’s capable of great things and even if she’s not at 100%, I think she’s still capable of going very deep in a lot of these tournaments.
“I’m still going to be on the side of compassion in Emma’s case. I still think she’s young
“I still think that she is figuring out what she needs. She’s hired a physical trainer that’s been with some of the best in the world. I would rather look at it that those actions are more important than the words.
“You can look at the words from a press conference, you can talk how she’s said she’s had niggles in the back and they’ve usually gone a lot quicker than they did.
“You can read whatever you want into that but the fact that she’s hired somebody that has been at the best one of the best sort of trainers in the world that knows what the elite level is, surely that’s what we should be looking at in this stage.
“It’s easy to get caught up in the fact that she’s pulled out of another tournament because of an injury, but if you’re not serious about it, I just don’t believe you’re going to hire somebody like that to spend the money that it will cost you to put yourself in the physical shape, the dark days that you had to go through to push your body.”
Raducanu’s confession that she ‘hopes’ to be fully fit for her match against Swiatek will concern some of her fans, who have had to get used to seeing the Brit pull out of tournaments when injury iggles have affected her.
Yet with so much at stake both in terms of ranking points, prize money and prestige, Raducanu needs to find a way to get herself on court and compete with Swiatek in what will be one of the most eagerly awaited women’s matches of the Australian Open so far.
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