If there is anything that Emma Raducanu’s career since her US Open triumph has reinforced beyond doubt, it is just how difficult the day-to-day grind of life as a professional tennis player is. The physical load each week is considerable, injury niggles are so common that few players are ever functioning at 100% and only the strongest maintain their spot at the top.
For now, as expected, Raducanu has a long way to go. In the past week in Prague, her latest injury issues have been the blisters on her foot. A recap of how she has fared since the US Open is largely a long list of such setbacks. She endured illness in her final tournaments of 2021, her off-season was scuppered by Covid, blisters on her hand forced her to her hit one-handed backhand slices at the Australian Open, in February she had to retire in Monterrey after sustaining a hip injury and a stiff back followed in Indian Wells.
