Emma Raducanu gives update on pre-season and 2022 tennis schedule after Royal Albert Hall appearance

Shahida Jacobs
November 29, 2021

She enjoyed a short break during which she “completely switched off”, but US Open champion Emma Raducanu is back in training and preparing for the 2022 tennis season.

The 19-year-old had a stellar debut campaign as she became the first qualifier to go all the way at a Grand Slam, winning 10 matches en route to lifting the US Open trophy at Flushing Meadows.

She finished the year at a career-high No 19 in the WTA Rankings with her last match of the season a first-round defeat at the Upper Austria Linz Ladies at the beginning of November.

Raducanu, though, enjoyed a few days off following her final event, but she returned to training last week.

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On Sunday she played her first match on British soil since June as she took on Elena-Gabriela Ruse from Romania in The Champions Tennis exhibition event at the Royal Albert Hall.

After coming out on top with a 6-3, 7-6 (7-3) victory, she revealed her schedule for the next few weeks.

“Six days I just completely switched off and I started my pre-season this week on Tuesday, but I’ve been doing a lot of fitness and not so much tennis so I was a bit nervous coming out to play in front of everyone here,” she said.

“I’m doing a pre-season and working hard on my fitness. As you can tell, I need to work with my sprints to the net as I was getting drop-shotted.”

She will next be in action at the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi in December before heading to Australia for the season-opening Grand Slam.

She added: “So I’m doing that and then I’m heading out to the Middle East to finish my pre-season and then Christmas out there and flying to Australia from there on the 27th.”

Emma Raducanu