During her 2024 Australian Open second round match, Emma Raducanu stated that she never considered withdrawing. Show Court 2 saw Raducanu’s defeat at the hands of Wang Yefan of China on Thursday, January 18, with scores of 4-6, 6-4, 4-6.
She was uncomfortable during the match, but she didn’t quit in the middle. The adolescent champion of the 2021 US Open claimed that her fortitude was bolstered by the procedures she experienced in the past year.
After a hiatus beginning in April 2023, Raducanu made a triumphant return to professional tennis at the ASB Classic earlier this year. The 21-year-old warned Wang that she would not back down from a fight.
The truth is that I’ve retired from a couple of matches due to illness or injury in the past. “I think, to be honest, you feel awful right now.. at some points I couldn’t really see the ball very well. But I think everything I went through last year has made me so much tougher,” Raducanu said in the post-match news conference, according to reports.
Emma Raducanu says there was no way she was going to retire from her match with illness, ‘she was going to have to beat me’:
“How close were you to stopping?
What kept you going in those moments?”Emma: “Honestly I've been in that situation before in matches, whether it was… pic.twitter.com/XHdsY5Frc4
— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) January 18, 2024
I was never going to back out. Defeating me was inevitable, and she achieved it. It was served by her. “I believe that the last year off, along with all the aches and pains and obstacles I had, did indeed strengthen me,” Raducanu remarked.
The cause of Raducanu’s demise was her 57 unforced mistakes, which was 25 more than her adversary. There were four breaks of serve that she gained and five that she gave up.
In Wang’s third-round match at the Rod Laver Arena on January 20, the Chinese star will face off against Qinwen Zheng.
