British hopes battered as another player withdraws from French Open injured

French Open
Kyle Edmund in action

Britain’s Kyle Edmund has been forced to withdraw from the 2023 French Open through injury.

The 28-year-old, who has battled knee problems over the last few years, has now picked up a wrist injury on the tour.

There are no British women in the main draw after Emma Raducanu pulled out following a double round of surgery for multiple nagging injuries.

Edmund hasn’t taken part in the French Open since 2019 when he reached the second round.

His knee surgery has allowed him to continue playing but results have been hard to come by for Edmund.

He has spoken of the surgery as something he needed to do to save his career.

“It was just sore to play on, so I played on it for a while, probably a couple years,” said the 27-year-old on ATPTour.com.

“I obviously missed quite a lot of 2020 with the no tournaments.

“So, I kind of [thought], ‘Okay, I’m going to train through this and make it better,’ but just couldn’t quite get there. I was like, ‘I don’t really want to play the rest of my career feeling like this. So, let’s do something about it.’”

Edmund had been grateful for the return to court even if he has battled to get back to his best.

“It just took a long time,” he said. “It’s not an injury that heals by itself, and there is no straightforward procedure to have. It’s just something that’s now part of my life. I have just accepted that.

“I will constantly be dealing with it. It’s not like now that I’ve had three ops it’s all fixed. But I’m happy where I’m at and I can enjoy playing now and just wake up and be a tennis player rather than a professional rehabber, which was what I was feeling for a long time.”

He has enjoyed a fresh perspective since returning and will now look to bounce back.

“It obviously taught me a lot of things,” said Edmund. “I have only known tennis for my whole career really. So, when I didn’t have that, there were times where I was speaking to someone and I was saying, ‘I feel like I’ve lost my identity. I’ve only known tennis. I’m a tennis player. So now I don’t have that. What am I doing? Every time I wake up in the morning, I have no purpose.’

“So it taught me a lot in that way and what I did have, really. [Once] I didn’t have it, you take things a lot less for granted. I wouldn’t say I’m a person that took everything for granted and was arrogant in that way, but I just realised what I did have.”

With the French Open draw held on Tuesday we learned that Two-time champion Djokovic will play American Aleksandar Kovacevic in his opening round match with the former Roland Garros winner carrying the No 3 seeding.

READ MORE: Bad news for Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic

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