Emma Raducanu has laid bare her injury woes ahead of the 2025 French Open. The Brit also revealed the treatment she and her team agreed on to alleviate her discomfort.
Raducanu has been tackling a back injury since the start of her 2025 campaign. The player’s discomfort was evident during her latest run at the Internationaux de Strasbourg when she called for a medical time out during her Round-of-16 match against Danielle Collins. She eventually lost the contest despite having a set lead (6-4, 1-6, 3-6).
Emma Raducanu Confronted Her Phobia of Needles During Back Injury Treatment
Raducanu’s back injury first gained the spotlight when she announced a last-minute withdrawal from her first tournament of the season, the ASB Classic in New Zealand. Although the Brit participated in pre-tournament practice sessions, she decided against competing, conveying that she’d “picked up a back niggle.”
Ahead of her opening match in Paris, Emma Raducanu revealed that she detected her back flare-up in Strasbourg well in time to start the necessary treatment, which wasn’t the case when she withdrew from the ASB Classic before the Australian Open.
“I would say the one before Australia was worse. I feel like this one I kind of caught before it fully locked up. So I think the treatment is a lot of it with the physios, a lot of it with heat. Been doing some needling,” she said.
Raducanu admitted to overcoming her trypanophobia in the process, having undergone the needling treatment as a last resort.
“At the start of the year, I was so scared of needles. It was my biggest phobia. That was the only way I was going to be able to play Australia,” she said.
“So since then, I’ve been kind of dipping my toes into it because I know it helps even though I’m really scared of them. That’s how I’ve kind of been trying to manage it,” the Brit added.
Emma Raducanu on Her Recovery Ahead of French Open 2025 Debut: ‘Not Feeling 100%’
Emma Raducanu is set to make her French Open 2025 debut on Sunday, May 25. The Brit takes on Wang Xinyu in her opening match. Despite the injury, she’s been spotted training intensely with interim coach Mark Petchey by her side.
The 2021 US Open champion, however, sounded cautious about her first match.
“Not feeling 100%. I had a spasm in Strasbourg and have just been trying to manage it as best I can, doing treatment,” she said. “I’ve been on the practice court last night and this morning. Yeah, it felt okay, but obviously it’s different playing a match.”
“I’m trying to do everything to get up to speed as fast as possible,” Raducanu added.
This is only the second time in her career that Emma Raducanu has entered the French Open. Her previous stint came in 2022, where she crashed out against Aliaksandra Sasnovich in the second round. She would hope to make a deeper run this time.
The winner between Raducanu and Wang faces either four-time tournament champion Iga Świątek or Rebecca Šramková in the next round.
