Australian Open 2025: Emma Raducanu 'ready to go' in Melbourne after back spasm
2025-01-10
Category: sports

Australian Open 2025Dates: 12-26 January Venue: Melbourne ParkCoverage: Live radio commentary on Tennis Breakfast from 07:00 GMT on BBC 5 Sports Extra, plus live text commentaries on the BBC Sport website and app
Emma Raducanu says she is "ready to go" against the world's best at the Australian Open after recovering from a back spasm which disrupted her preparations.The British number two goes into the opening Grand Slam of the season having not played competitively since the Billie Jean King Cup in November.Raducanu, 22, was forced to withdraw from the Auckland International at the end of December after suffering the spasm when she bent to tie her shoelace.Her first match of the new season will be against Russian 26th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova in the Melbourne first round."I feel good. I feel healthy and feel I've been training well. I'm prepared and ready to go," said Raducanu, who is ranked 60th in the world."I think I can be a dangerous opponent for anyone really. You have to kind of have that belief as a player. "It's not really worth going on court if you don't believe you can win."
Raducanu is looking to build on a 2024 season in which she made encouraging progress following surgeries on her wrists and ankle.However, the injury issues which have blighted her - for most of the time since she stunned the world to win the 2021 US Open as a teenage qualifier - also continued. At last year's US Open, a lack of match action led to a rusty first-round exit and a tearful admission afterwards that it was a "lesson learned"."I think the difference between this and the US Open is I hadn't actually trained at all really before the US Open," said Raducanu, who employed Yutaka Nakamura as a full-time fitness coach in December."But I've been putting in really good work."The former world number 10 added: "The way [Yutaka] has structured our practices and our days has helped me to get into that position where I feel pretty ready."In a bid to negate the lack of match practice, Raducanu has played sets against sixth seed Elena Rybakina, of Kazakhstan, and former world number four Caroline Garcia, of France."Stepping out with them is great... to see and measure your game and where it is at," she said."This week I've played with really top players and felt good on the court. I didn't feel I was out of my depth at all."It definitely gives me confidence but it is another thing putting it on the match court."