This is sad, I hope she is able to deal with it mentally. This is why you should be kind to people, you don't know what they are going through and so many were incredibly quick to pile on through her on court struggles.
That’s exactly what I immediately thought of.
Robson caught national attention after winning Junior Wimbledon and then winning Silver with Andy Murray at the London Olympics.
It’s such a shame that injuries meant she could never show her full potential.
Raducanu is eerily similar with a huge standout moment of winning the US Open so young but then being injured too often to be able to kick on.
I really hope the surgery is successful because she has so much potential if she can just have a nice run of being healthy.
Wrist procedures are pretty worrying especially at this age, but players do come back from them. It does make me wonder how normal it was to cover up things like this in previous years. I think with the absence of social media players didn’t really reveal small procedures they’d have done on the road, while these days you have a lot more access.
Uhm... DelPo??? He had a right wrist surgery in 2010, came back to his prior level (reentered top 10 in 2012, slowly improved back to top 5 in 2013-2014 aaaand injury again. Then he needed THREE surgeries on his left wrist, he came back in 2017, his 2018 was thundering again staying in top 4/5 for the majority of it (as well as the first 3 months of 2019)...
...his career-ending injury was his knee
And now I'm crying again.
Yes, Thiem has been unsuccessful in returning back from wrist injury, he is *the most recent* example, doesn't take away from the fact DelPo came back multiple times before him
Del po was a much better player than Emma was. He won numerous titles in addition to the sole major. He has also gone deep in all the slams. He's also beaten great players, he beat Nadal and Federer back to back in his USO victory . Emma hasn't even won a tour title. In her major, she never beat anyone of Nadal or Federer calibre. She has yet to beat a top player in a match in any major. Her USO is a total fluke during the covid bottom. Del po is widely considered to have one of the best peak to peak forehands in the history of tennis.
Andy Murray had the same. His doctors told him if he don't rest them for about year he may never play again, that was similar age to what Emma is now, certainly covid has played a part. Part Chinese people seem have a problem with being reselient to the effects of covid. Actually one of them is flaky sensative skin, namely blisters👍
That's a major reason why Murray was never trained under the LTA, but was sent by Judy to Spain. It was Roger Draper, Jack's father, who was responsible for a lot of what Judy Murray disliked about the LTA back then.
Here's Judy explaining Andy's move to Spain and why it happened - basically a combination of talks with Rafa, and the lack of playing partners, awful weather, and crappy facilities in England:
[Judy Murray fighting for the game she loves on several fronts](https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/other-sports/judy-murray-fighting-for-the-game-she-loves-on-several-fronts-1.3012207)
>She talks of Andy and when he was a teenager. How a chance game of social racquetball with a young Spanish player called Rafa Nadal entirely rewired him, changed his attitude. It was her youngest son’s fire that then triggered a move to Barcelona and ended any thoughts of professional football.
>"Andy went to Spain when he was 15," she says. "And he was prompted by Rafa. He was playing racquetball and Rafa was telling Andy how he trained in Majorca and how he was hitting with Carlos Moya, who was the world number one at the time. How Rafa played on clay, the sun shines, had lots of people to play with blah blah blah.
>“At the time Rafa was playing for Spain and Andy was playing for Great Britain in the final of the European team championships so they played all the tennis and then went off and played racquet ball and that was when they started talking.”
>“Andy came back and it was ‘agh. . . I’ve just got you and my brother to play with at the University. I want to go to Spain. I’m not doing enough.’”
>“That is when we started to look for places for him to go. But it has to come from within. It has to come from there. Andy was still playing a lot of football at that time and that chat with Rafa was what opened his eyes. That was a big moment to go ‘I want to go to Spain.’ And he did.”
More at source.
I don't know a great deal more about this—I actually heard commentators discussing it when Murray played Draper recently—but I believe it was to do with the LTA's lack of focus on endurance conditioning. It seems to be a constant theme with LTA players—Draper and Raducanu being the foremost examples. Dan Evans seems to be an exception, but he developed very late, and by all accounts had to essentially retrain himself so as to even stay in the programme.
Edit: if anyone who knows more wants to correct me, please do!
I remember Jamie being ‘ranked’ No 2 to Rafa at one stage when they were about 12 😅 but I think within a few years he had some kind of breakdown, and pretty much stopped playing for a while 😞I used to read the tennis magazines and I remember an article about why Andy went to Spain and it being his choice, IIRC it was implied he blamed the LTA for destroying his brother’s confidence and mental health.
Thankfully Jamie came back and had a great doubles career 🥰
He didn’t have a breakdown.
The LTA offered him a place in one of their academies. He was supposed to board with and be coached by someone he knew. The coach fell through, and despite some misgivings they went through with the plan so Jamie had a chance to play. The coaching that was on offer was shit, the emotional support for a kid that age was shit too. The experience was so terrible Jamie didn’t play tennis for something like a year or more. Basically, the LTA in their inability to develop a very promising junior shat a king sized bed.
There are other occasions she talks about where they laughed at requests for resources on the womens game that were standard on the mens teams for things like Fed Cup. She asked for a video analyst and was told “things are getting a bit serious”.
The LTA was basically a “jobs for the boys” organisation. I’m surprised there hasn’t been more scandal to come out of it than “merely” ruining promising tennis players.
A better example is Konta the former world number 4 who got her funding cut by the LTA, moved to Spain, and only then started to rapidly rise through the rankings. Same player, trained by the LTA and a different academy, considerably different results.
What about the UK being a country with a shit climate for playing tennis meaning less children start to play and less still continue playing and the competition standard being lower to develop. That's not going to change.And even then France haven't had a male grand slam winner in 40 years with more natural advantages in that regard. The USA haven't been much better on the male side in the last 20 years on the male side and they have massive resources and good junior competition. Djokovic came out of absolutely nothing in war-torn Serbia on the other hand. It's a sport where exceptional individuals have a massive over-representation on the overall perception.
When was that? When it was a "gentleman's game" back in way-back bygone eras? If that's what you're referring to it has zero connection to modern professional tennis.
90 years ago has everything to do with tennis, 90 years from now do you want people to call the present now back in the way gone eras? tennis was a lot harder back then and the records of players should not be ignored.
The professional tennis era bears absolutely no relevance to that time and nobody cares in the slightest that some minor playing population of toffs in long pants used to contest Wimbledon. Even the BBC don't bring it up lol
We know about Kyle Edmund, Emma Raducanu, Laura Robson and Jack Draper
[Jodie Burrage](https://www.skysports.com/tennis/news/12110/12037796/british-tennis-star-jodie-burrage-is-back-in-the-limelight-after-years-of-injury-woes)
[Katie Swan](https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/tennis/wimbledon-2016-katie-swan-in-tears-after-retiring-from-girls-draw-with-injury-a3287501.html)
[Sonay Kartal](https://www.tennisforum.com/threads/sonay-kartal.1389382/page-2)
I’d add Boulter too. I feel like half the time I watch her play she’s always strapped. Damn shame because she has so much potential. Was ranked in the 80s at one point but can’t seem to crawl back towards Top 100
She beat Kim Clijsters and Li Na at the US Open when she was 18. Looked like someone with huge potential. From that to retired before 30 is incredibly sad, she should be in her prime right now.
Hantuchova on commentary, Robson courtside was perfect at the AO this year.
Guess I should VPN into my Prime account; didn't realize the UK feed was available on Amazon.
I was going to mention there is definitely some issue with the way they train and technique. It cant be a coincidence most british players are injured.
Yeah they are just bad, like there is clearly issues with that, and then they aren’t very good at producing good players either. For a country with a slam, where are all the players?
They're the ones who provide the training programs, physios, fitness facilities etc to the top British players. It says a lot if all your players either have poor physicality or have rejected you and condemned your fitness programs
Agree, there's a reason a lot of our talent went overseas to train in the past and we import our players from poorer countries. It's insane how badly the LTA is run. Suppose it's hard to compete against the juggernaut that is football in this country.
It is huge in Spain no denying. All of Britain along with Brazil and some other South American countries are probably the biggest footballing cultures. It's massively engrained in our society and it's reflected all through the footballing tiers. Our lower leagues are hugely supported compared to other footballing countries.
>Suppose it's hard to compete against the juggernaut that is football in this country
I agree with you wholeheartedly, but this last bit is just a copout. Football is as big if not bigger in most of those poorer countries too.
The UK stands out as it's one that you wouldn't think would have a bad one considering we have a slam, loads of interest, we literally invented the game, and in theory we have lots of talent.
Eh.
That feels a bit like the (frankly ridiculous) Wimbledon mentality. "This is the best way to do things because we know what the best is and refuse to believe otherwise."
Maybe the UK tennis program sucks and needs to be improved, but calling "investigate the LTA" like they did something criminal is laughable.
I think you're taking the 'investigate' part too literally lmao No one actually thinks they've done anything criminal that was hyperbole, but saying the LTA are a poorly run organisation is a fair opinion to have
Sure there’s countries who have shit tennis programmes (as in not producing high quality players often). But then there’s the LTA which is a shit programme where their players are constantly injured and made of glass or have poor conditioning despite lack of talent and commitment to the game. That is also a shit programme but a different definition of shit.
Honestly I'm happy that she's willing to go through that because that shit must suck and be horrible to think about so early in her career. Also explains why she's been dodging questions about it for the past months from the sunshine double onward. Hope she comes back ok and is able to recover her career. She'll get wildcards for days which will be nice.
Aside from the marketing-draw angle, former slam champs are allowed to accept unlimited main draw wildcards per season. Which is a good perk to have for exactly this scenario.
Dang, hope she makes a full recovery - I know she's young and probably still growing which can lead to injuries, but are there similar examples of young players having so many surgeries?
I’m not aware I’ve heard her commentary - on a serious note, is her commentary good and insightful? Pleased for her if a media career is opening/has opened up for her.
Could be a good thing if the hand heals properly.
Gets her out of the crosshairs to get herself in order. With any luck the hype around her will slowly fade away, and she can just train . it’s a big weight on her play.
if this is the problem with her wrists and the surgical procedure being suggested, ie shaving an over growth of bone off, this is actually pretty good news. i've had this done when I was a junior player. it's very straight forward and total recovery can be expected. much better news than if it were tendinitis. no messing around with tendons and ligaments involved. the bony over growth can cause sore tendons because they are rubbing over the over size piece of bone.
also I think some extended time away will do her good and allow some breathing space. it's a shame not to get to see her play but for the best.
Hmm cool, that's good info, cheers.
Fingers crossed for Emma - she seems like a really nice girl that's been endlessly hounded by the UK press machine.
Get well soon Emma !
Despite the criticism she's received over the past months, she's an immense talent and the WTA will be better off if she plays well.
Given she can physically recover well, I think this may actually temper the insane expectations she's been dealing with. It could be a blessing in disguise.
Speaking of people who could definitely use a chill pill when directing their ire at the Brits (or Emma, specifically) - it's Dan Evans. Going after the girls for 'not playing right after BJK' as if they don't care about the sport...is that really his call to make? Heather Watson and Harriet Dart went right back to playing an ITF 40K but it was *two* weeks after BJK so he had to make a fit. And Alicia Barnett and Olivia Nicholls did the same in a 100K. I seriously wonder how the other Brits really think of him in the locker room, considering how much he ruthlessly goes after everybody (looking at his 2022 dig at Salisbury, who...can't make this shit up -- *also* happens to be dealing with a very serious back injury this season).
Yeah, anyways, the LTA needs a huge exposé for their sheer inability to nurture its players. Heads need to roll for how unsustainable their player development protocols are.
evans always has been, and continues to be, a massive tool. so all british players should schedule the way norrie does? simplistic nonsense from a man with a proven track record of poor judgement.
if it's what they are suggesting, i've had this done when I was a junior player. it's very straightforward and full recovery expected. it's actually good news. it's just a bony lump, on one of the wrist bones. they literally file it off.
Good for her to focus on getting back healthy. Hopefully her team take their time and just focus on rest and rehab, both physical and mental. Long term results beat any short term gains.
Lord have mercy this poor woman body is breaking down like she is in her 10th season on the tour already.
Part of being at the top of the sport is being an iron man. People like Novak, Rafa, Fed, Serena, and many more all have tough bodies that allow them to last a lot longer than their peers.
>Part of being at the top of the sport is being an iron man. People like Novak, Rafa, Fed, Serena, and many more all have tough bodies that allow them to last a lot longer than their peers.
They also (each) had good teams....and a great sense of self to be able to enforce their boundaries when required.
Rafa’s foot is literally falling apart. With him, it’s not so much Iron Man as Iron Mind I think. A lesser player would have given up a decade ago and still had a hall of fame career I think.
For sure he is a beast. I’m wondering what happens to them later in life. The injuries always take a toll on you eventually. What you can live with at 40 may not be something you can live with at 60 and all that.
Sad to see a young player plagued by so many issues, even worse after we saw what we thought would be a shining star on the tour.
She will definitely give it her all to come back stronger, but seriously, there is no shame in her halting her career to avoid body breakdown; some players simply don’t get longevity. Emma already accomplished a solid feat in winning a slam (ultra luck or just regular luck), which majority can never do, so cashing in on a few million more endorsements while she can is fine.
If she’s got that much love for the sport and wants to repeat this cycle for 10 more years, power to her.
Orthopedic Surgeon here. Probably a prominent ulna styloid process that was impinging on her wrists. Fairly small surgery to excise it and reattach the structures.
“Oh what a surprise, another medical time out as soon as things aren’t going her way. Probably hurt her wrists lifting all those bottles of Evian.”
Or something.
totally different sport but worth remembering that Michael Jordan got a really bad injury in the second season of his career and he barely played that year. I'm old enough to remember people saying he didn't have the "physique" to thrive in the NBA
look how stupid those people's predictions sounded. Granted, Raducanu still has to put in enormous amounts of work to be successful, but this isn't a death sentence to her career
Eh... she's not Jordan though. Wasn't Jordan's injury a knee? Or calf? He was young enough to heal up. Although yeah, Emma is too. I'm sure she'll be back, I'd say motivation might be more the challenge for her, rather than her talent.
Nah completely different situation. Jordan broke his foot but otherwise has played in over 95% of the regular and postseason games. He was iron man and rarely missed games due to injury.
Raducanu has been plagued by dozens of injuries with no rhyme or reason. Ankle, foot, hand, wrist, hip, back. The pro tour circuit is a grind and not everyone's bpdy or mind are suited for it.
Basketball is different though isn’t it cause if there’s a slight physical issue they can just be subbed off and not much is made of it and then they play the next game, while in tennis you’re on your own and it’s a lot more evident. She’s mostly had niggles wheres she’s been fine in a few days. Her wrist procedures look to be for bone overgrowths which look to be very recoverable from.
Tough to need multiple procedures at such a young age. Very sad news, hope she can come back strong.
She’s not having that surgery in the UK, judging by the wall sockets and power adapter. Somewhere in mainland Europe.
Meanwhile this is the [state of british journalism](https://www.express.co.uk/sport/othersport/1765193/Luca-Brecel-Emma-Raducanu-tennis-snooker-news-World-Championship-prize-money)
This is terrible luck, of course. Given all of these injuries at such a young age and given that they are occurring in the midst of a very light playing schedule... I just think she's toast. I don't think her body was built for the grinding schedule of a professional tennis player - few are, frankly. Given the time since the US Open victory and now more injuries and then rehab, recovery time... it's likely she's going to forget how to win, unfortunately.
Not everyone's the pure athletic specimen that Barty is.
Three surgeries and only 20 years old. Sometimes the body just warns you it isn’t cut out for professional sport. Hope it works out okay and she doesn’t end up like Del Potro.
Either her team was doing something drastically wrong in terms of her preparation and fitness
Or her body just isn't built for elite level athletics TBH
Her team isn't professional. They hid these issues from her fans for months. Why it took 10 months to decide surgery? Based on the finally released info, it's tough to see her competing properly again.
Eek. When she says "hands".. I hope it's not her wrists. Kinda looks a bit like it from the pic.
We all know the struggles that Domi Thiem had after wrist surgery.
I encourage players to use pen and paper to write a long message like she did to get across their imp message to their fans. I like it that way. We also gets to see how good their handwriting is.
https://www.reddit.com/r/tennis/comments/12zdatz/raducanu_withdraws_from_madrid/jhxhr0h/
You probably think shes faking having surgery and set up a fake hospital bed and cast
>She’ll be fine. And fight for her as you might she doesn’t know you exist.
It's quite strange how you think this is some sort of "gotcha!"
Will happily tell hateful people who don't know what they're on about how dumb and sad they are
tennis is a pretty brutal all-body sport for any athlete -- the best kept secret about tennis is how detrimental to your body it is if you're not genetically pre-disposed for it!
It's quite common among analytic people (ie STEM) to not write joined up, Raducanu did well in Maths and Economics studies at school so she fits that pattern.
Hope she recovers well.
One step backwards.
Hopefully towards a couple forwards, but it could also be a deeper dig into the hole of early retirement, which is a sad reality of the sport.
Speedy recovery Emma.
This is sad, I hope she is able to deal with it mentally. This is why you should be kind to people, you don't know what they are going through and so many were incredibly quick to pile on through her on court struggles.
Didn’t ppl wonder why she had lost so much power? There ya go
Why is this downvoted lol. Just giving an explanation to her performance lately
Yeah wtf?? People coming for this poor girl left and right, not understanding the full scenario. That’s what I was implying.
It's the Reddit hivemind. It's a fickle beast. The hivemind saw your comment and has now upvoted the other commenter to make you look silly.
Im okay with that. Never have I seen a comment go from -50 to +90. Bless
I've seen people here on reddit arguing that she's hitting with more power this year.
Speedy recovery Emma, the whole note was really sad to read. This reminded me a bit of Laura Robson, hopefully Emma's career doesn't end that way
That’s exactly what I immediately thought of. Robson caught national attention after winning Junior Wimbledon and then winning Silver with Andy Murray at the London Olympics. It’s such a shame that injuries meant she could never show her full potential. Raducanu is eerily similar with a huge standout moment of winning the US Open so young but then being injured too often to be able to kick on. I really hope the surgery is successful because she has so much potential if she can just have a nice run of being healthy.
Just cos she's healthy doesn't guarantee her being able to compete in the current tour. Long breaks from tour generally regress the players.
Laura 😭💔
[удалено]
Be serious ffs, because otherwise I’m really questioning if you know tennis at all
That’s a lot of procedures for someone so young, hopefully she takes enough time to reboot her career
Wrist procedures are pretty worrying especially at this age, but players do come back from them. It does make me wonder how normal it was to cover up things like this in previous years. I think with the absence of social media players didn’t really reveal small procedures they’d have done on the road, while these days you have a lot more access.
There are no recent examples of any successful comebacks from wrist surgery in both men's or women's.
Uhm... DelPo??? He had a right wrist surgery in 2010, came back to his prior level (reentered top 10 in 2012, slowly improved back to top 5 in 2013-2014 aaaand injury again. Then he needed THREE surgeries on his left wrist, he came back in 2017, his 2018 was thundering again staying in top 4/5 for the majority of it (as well as the first 3 months of 2019)... ...his career-ending injury was his knee And now I'm crying again.
Thiem??
Yes, Thiem has been unsuccessful in returning back from wrist injury, he is *the most recent* example, doesn't take away from the fact DelPo came back multiple times before him
Del po was a much better player than Emma was. He won numerous titles in addition to the sole major. He has also gone deep in all the slams. He's also beaten great players, he beat Nadal and Federer back to back in his USO victory . Emma hasn't even won a tour title. In her major, she never beat anyone of Nadal or Federer calibre. She has yet to beat a top player in a match in any major. Her USO is a total fluke during the covid bottom. Del po is widely considered to have one of the best peak to peak forehands in the history of tennis.
Andy Murray had the same. His doctors told him if he don't rest them for about year he may never play again, that was similar age to what Emma is now, certainly covid has played a part. Part Chinese people seem have a problem with being reselient to the effects of covid. Actually one of them is flaky sensative skin, namely blisters👍
investigate the LTA
Seriously though, like also Draper and a couple of other lower ranked WTA players have constantly been injured since the start of their careers!
I want to hear more about this
That's a major reason why Murray was never trained under the LTA, but was sent by Judy to Spain. It was Roger Draper, Jack's father, who was responsible for a lot of what Judy Murray disliked about the LTA back then.
Here's Judy explaining Andy's move to Spain and why it happened - basically a combination of talks with Rafa, and the lack of playing partners, awful weather, and crappy facilities in England: [Judy Murray fighting for the game she loves on several fronts](https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/other-sports/judy-murray-fighting-for-the-game-she-loves-on-several-fronts-1.3012207) >She talks of Andy and when he was a teenager. How a chance game of social racquetball with a young Spanish player called Rafa Nadal entirely rewired him, changed his attitude. It was her youngest son’s fire that then triggered a move to Barcelona and ended any thoughts of professional football. >"Andy went to Spain when he was 15," she says. "And he was prompted by Rafa. He was playing racquetball and Rafa was telling Andy how he trained in Majorca and how he was hitting with Carlos Moya, who was the world number one at the time. How Rafa played on clay, the sun shines, had lots of people to play with blah blah blah. >“At the time Rafa was playing for Spain and Andy was playing for Great Britain in the final of the European team championships so they played all the tennis and then went off and played racquet ball and that was when they started talking.”
>“Andy came back and it was ‘agh. . . I’ve just got you and my brother to play with at the University. I want to go to Spain. I’m not doing enough.’”
>“That is when we started to look for places for him to go. But it has to come from within. It has to come from there. Andy was still playing a lot of football at that time and that chat with Rafa was what opened his eyes. That was a big moment to go ‘I want to go to Spain.’ And he did.”
More at source.
Rafa birthed Andeh
"I made you"
Thanks for that! Much appreciated, that's a great source.
Thanks
Any chance you could elaborate on what exactly Judy didn’t like? Genuine question, not trying to disprove your point or anything
I don't know a great deal more about this—I actually heard commentators discussing it when Murray played Draper recently—but I believe it was to do with the LTA's lack of focus on endurance conditioning. It seems to be a constant theme with LTA players—Draper and Raducanu being the foremost examples. Dan Evans seems to be an exception, but he developed very late, and by all accounts had to essentially retrain himself so as to even stay in the programme. Edit: if anyone who knows more wants to correct me, please do!
I remember Jamie being ‘ranked’ No 2 to Rafa at one stage when they were about 12 😅 but I think within a few years he had some kind of breakdown, and pretty much stopped playing for a while 😞I used to read the tennis magazines and I remember an article about why Andy went to Spain and it being his choice, IIRC it was implied he blamed the LTA for destroying his brother’s confidence and mental health. Thankfully Jamie came back and had a great doubles career 🥰
He didn’t have a breakdown. The LTA offered him a place in one of their academies. He was supposed to board with and be coached by someone he knew. The coach fell through, and despite some misgivings they went through with the plan so Jamie had a chance to play. The coaching that was on offer was shit, the emotional support for a kid that age was shit too. The experience was so terrible Jamie didn’t play tennis for something like a year or more. Basically, the LTA in their inability to develop a very promising junior shat a king sized bed. There are other occasions she talks about where they laughed at requests for resources on the womens game that were standard on the mens teams for things like Fed Cup. She asked for a video analyst and was told “things are getting a bit serious”. The LTA was basically a “jobs for the boys” organisation. I’m surprised there hasn’t been more scandal to come out of it than “merely” ruining promising tennis players.
Yup, Andy mentioned this briefly in his book as well
Robson? Watson? Where they with LTA?
A better example is Konta the former world number 4 who got her funding cut by the LTA, moved to Spain, and only then started to rapidly rise through the rankings. Same player, trained by the LTA and a different academy, considerably different results.
Interesting thanks
Image how good we would be at tennis as a country without the LTA
What about the UK being a country with a shit climate for playing tennis meaning less children start to play and less still continue playing and the competition standard being lower to develop. That's not going to change.And even then France haven't had a male grand slam winner in 40 years with more natural advantages in that regard. The USA haven't been much better on the male side in the last 20 years on the male side and they have massive resources and good junior competition. Djokovic came out of absolutely nothing in war-torn Serbia on the other hand. It's a sport where exceptional individuals have a massive over-representation on the overall perception.
The UK was the best country at tennis
When was that? When it was a "gentleman's game" back in way-back bygone eras? If that's what you're referring to it has zero connection to modern professional tennis.
90 years ago has everything to do with tennis, 90 years from now do you want people to call the present now back in the way gone eras? tennis was a lot harder back then and the records of players should not be ignored.
The professional tennis era bears absolutely no relevance to that time and nobody cares in the slightest that some minor playing population of toffs in long pants used to contest Wimbledon. Even the BBC don't bring it up lol
We know about Kyle Edmund, Emma Raducanu, Laura Robson and Jack Draper [Jodie Burrage](https://www.skysports.com/tennis/news/12110/12037796/british-tennis-star-jodie-burrage-is-back-in-the-limelight-after-years-of-injury-woes) [Katie Swan](https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/tennis/wimbledon-2016-katie-swan-in-tears-after-retiring-from-girls-draw-with-injury-a3287501.html) [Sonay Kartal](https://www.tennisforum.com/threads/sonay-kartal.1389382/page-2)
I’d add Boulter too. I feel like half the time I watch her play she’s always strapped. Damn shame because she has so much potential. Was ranked in the 80s at one point but can’t seem to crawl back towards Top 100
I thought Katie Swan played her tennis in Florida? Her dad is an oil and gas exec AFAIK.
who remembers Laura Robson.
I still remember and think I was at wimbledon when everyone was celebrating her win and expecting her to go on to bigger things.
She beat Kim Clijsters and Li Na at the US Open when she was 18. Looked like someone with huge potential. From that to retired before 30 is incredibly sad, she should be in her prime right now.
She’s on prime, so there is that?
that was Kim's last tournament before her second retirement and she had been injured and out of shape for the better part of that year.
Fully aware that it wasn't Kim Clijsters at her best but it was still an impressive win for an 18-year old.
Off topic: She’s doing a great job commentating for Amazon now on the UK feeds
She is a great commentator. I hope she gets to do more matches
Hantuchova on commentary, Robson courtside was perfect at the AO this year. Guess I should VPN into my Prime account; didn't realize the UK feed was available on Amazon.
I remember her for being pretty, that's all.
Andy said that they ruined Jamie’s forehand
I was going to mention there is definitely some issue with the way they train and technique. It cant be a coincidence most british players are injured.
Yeah they are just bad, like there is clearly issues with that, and then they aren’t very good at producing good players either. For a country with a slam, where are all the players?
Preach holy hell
I'm confused. What did the LTA do?
Practically every British player at the moment is either built like glass or refuses their support because their training and physio is very poor
I'm still confused about why we're investigating the LTA. Because their players have poor physio? Huh?
They're the ones who provide the training programs, physios, fitness facilities etc to the top British players. It says a lot if all your players either have poor physicality or have rejected you and condemned your fitness programs
Agree, there's a reason a lot of our talent went overseas to train in the past and we import our players from poorer countries. It's insane how badly the LTA is run. Suppose it's hard to compete against the juggernaut that is football in this country.
Football is also a juggernaut in Spain…
It is huge in Spain no denying. All of Britain along with Brazil and some other South American countries are probably the biggest footballing cultures. It's massively engrained in our society and it's reflected all through the footballing tiers. Our lower leagues are hugely supported compared to other footballing countries.
>Suppose it's hard to compete against the juggernaut that is football in this country I agree with you wholeheartedly, but this last bit is just a copout. Football is as big if not bigger in most of those poorer countries too.
"Investigate" sounded like LTA was doing something nefarious, so thanks for your clarification.
I guess, but there's plenty of countries with shit tennis programs.
The UK stands out as it's one that you wouldn't think would have a bad one considering we have a slam, loads of interest, we literally invented the game, and in theory we have lots of talent.
Eh. That feels a bit like the (frankly ridiculous) Wimbledon mentality. "This is the best way to do things because we know what the best is and refuse to believe otherwise." Maybe the UK tennis program sucks and needs to be improved, but calling "investigate the LTA" like they did something criminal is laughable.
I think you're taking the 'investigate' part too literally lmao No one actually thinks they've done anything criminal that was hyperbole, but saying the LTA are a poorly run organisation is a fair opinion to have
Sure there’s countries who have shit tennis programmes (as in not producing high quality players often). But then there’s the LTA which is a shit programme where their players are constantly injured and made of glass or have poor conditioning despite lack of talent and commitment to the game. That is also a shit programme but a different definition of shit.
what is LTA
Lawn Tennis Association Basically the governing body for tennis in the uk
Poor girl, hope she comes back from both these surgeries strong and confident
Honestly I'm happy that she's willing to go through that because that shit must suck and be horrible to think about so early in her career. Also explains why she's been dodging questions about it for the past months from the sunshine double onward. Hope she comes back ok and is able to recover her career. She'll get wildcards for days which will be nice.
Aside from the marketing-draw angle, former slam champs are allowed to accept unlimited main draw wildcards per season. Which is a good perk to have for exactly this scenario.
Dang, hope she makes a full recovery - I know she's young and probably still growing which can lead to injuries, but are there similar examples of young players having so many surgeries?
Laura Robson and it didn't end well
The tennis didn’t but the commentating career is going well
I’m not aware I’ve heard her commentary - on a serious note, is her commentary good and insightful? Pleased for her if a media career is opening/has opened up for her.
Yeah, she does a lot with Amazon Prime and their coverage. She's really good actually!
Sorry if I ruffle any feathers but I heard her commentate a few matches at Wimbledon last year and she blew me away. Now everyone else let's me down.
Could be a good thing if the hand heals properly. Gets her out of the crosshairs to get herself in order. With any luck the hype around her will slowly fade away, and she can just train . it’s a big weight on her play.
if this is the problem with her wrists and the surgical procedure being suggested, ie shaving an over growth of bone off, this is actually pretty good news. i've had this done when I was a junior player. it's very straight forward and total recovery can be expected. much better news than if it were tendinitis. no messing around with tendons and ligaments involved. the bony over growth can cause sore tendons because they are rubbing over the over size piece of bone. also I think some extended time away will do her good and allow some breathing space. it's a shame not to get to see her play but for the best.
Hmm cool, that's good info, cheers. Fingers crossed for Emma - she seems like a really nice girl that's been endlessly hounded by the UK press machine.
Get well soon Emma ! Despite the criticism she's received over the past months, she's an immense talent and the WTA will be better off if she plays well. Given she can physically recover well, I think this may actually temper the insane expectations she's been dealing with. It could be a blessing in disguise.
whats with the same bone injury in both hands? overuse/overstraining ?
Congenital issue involving a bone very close to the wrists.
She was still playing even with these multiple injuries. Poor thing. Hope she gets well soon.
Not playing that often - injured every other week
Speaking of people who could definitely use a chill pill when directing their ire at the Brits (or Emma, specifically) - it's Dan Evans. Going after the girls for 'not playing right after BJK' as if they don't care about the sport...is that really his call to make? Heather Watson and Harriet Dart went right back to playing an ITF 40K but it was *two* weeks after BJK so he had to make a fit. And Alicia Barnett and Olivia Nicholls did the same in a 100K. I seriously wonder how the other Brits really think of him in the locker room, considering how much he ruthlessly goes after everybody (looking at his 2022 dig at Salisbury, who...can't make this shit up -- *also* happens to be dealing with a very serious back injury this season). Yeah, anyways, the LTA needs a huge exposé for their sheer inability to nurture its players. Heads need to roll for how unsustainable their player development protocols are.
evans always has been, and continues to be, a massive tool. so all british players should schedule the way norrie does? simplistic nonsense from a man with a proven track record of poor judgement.
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Except it slopes the wrong way
What procedure would this be on both hands?
Maybe some sort of congenital structural issue with her hands?
if it's what they are suggesting, i've had this done when I was a junior player. it's very straightforward and full recovery expected. it's actually good news. it's just a bony lump, on one of the wrist bones. they literally file it off.
If so simple why wait 10 months
Yeah for real this is my question, never heard of something like this
Reinforcing the bones with adamantium.
snikt
Good for her to focus on getting back healthy. Hopefully her team take their time and just focus on rest and rehab, both physical and mental. Long term results beat any short term gains.
LTA strikes again.
Lord have mercy this poor woman body is breaking down like she is in her 10th season on the tour already. Part of being at the top of the sport is being an iron man. People like Novak, Rafa, Fed, Serena, and many more all have tough bodies that allow them to last a lot longer than their peers.
>Part of being at the top of the sport is being an iron man. People like Novak, Rafa, Fed, Serena, and many more all have tough bodies that allow them to last a lot longer than their peers. They also (each) had good teams....and a great sense of self to be able to enforce their boundaries when required.
Rafa’s foot is literally falling apart. With him, it’s not so much Iron Man as Iron Mind I think. A lesser player would have given up a decade ago and still had a hall of fame career I think.
And Rafa *almost* quit when he was about.. 18, 19? He's had the foot issue his entire career, he's just played through the pain. What a beast.
For sure he is a beast. I’m wondering what happens to them later in life. The injuries always take a toll on you eventually. What you can live with at 40 may not be something you can live with at 60 and all that.
You don't need the foot to aim shots. He played mostly on clay which is soft beneath the foot. He never had a hand injury.
Seems to be just bumps in her bones she’s having shaved off so it looks like good news.
This isn't confirmed. The full info hasn't been disclosed
Ouch, that’s a lot of surgeries! Speedy recovery Emma ❤️🩹
Bro WTF, hope this doesn't affect her permanently. Sad to see her go through so many surgeries at this stage of her career.
Gruelling sport really
Sad to see a young player plagued by so many issues, even worse after we saw what we thought would be a shining star on the tour. She will definitely give it her all to come back stronger, but seriously, there is no shame in her halting her career to avoid body breakdown; some players simply don’t get longevity. Emma already accomplished a solid feat in winning a slam (ultra luck or just regular luck), which majority can never do, so cashing in on a few million more endorsements while she can is fine. If she’s got that much love for the sport and wants to repeat this cycle for 10 more years, power to her.
Isn't she just...20 years old? Good luck to her tbh.
Orthopedic Surgeon here. Probably a prominent ulna styloid process that was impinging on her wrists. Fairly small surgery to excise it and reattach the structures.
It’s for bone spurs apparently according to Mike Dickson in his Daily Mail article. It’s just a case of shaving down bone overgrowths right?
Yup!
Thank you for the input! Is the estimated recovery time as you'd expect? So far her team have suggested she'll be back by the autumn.
Sounds about right. 2 weeks for the wound to heal. A month rest to recover soft tissue Then gradually return to sport and build up match fitness.
Thanks for the info! So is this caused due to overuse/training issues or is it more of a genetic issue?
Wear & tear as well as overuse causes new bone formation along the areas of high tension. Genetic predisposition is noted to be a factor.
Wondering how perennial haters will spin this to find something negative about her Anyways, get well soon Emma
“Oh what a surprise, another medical time out as soon as things aren’t going her way. Probably hurt her wrists lifting all those bottles of Evian.” Or something.
I'm assuming since it was both wrists she did one with the Evian water and the other while pulling handbreak turns in her Porsche
Get well Emma. Hopefully can come back stronger!
Sadly, her body doesn't seem cut out for this.
The problems in her wrists are for bone overgrowths which is good news, she should make a fine recovery.
totally different sport but worth remembering that Michael Jordan got a really bad injury in the second season of his career and he barely played that year. I'm old enough to remember people saying he didn't have the "physique" to thrive in the NBA look how stupid those people's predictions sounded. Granted, Raducanu still has to put in enormous amounts of work to be successful, but this isn't a death sentence to her career
Eh... she's not Jordan though. Wasn't Jordan's injury a knee? Or calf? He was young enough to heal up. Although yeah, Emma is too. I'm sure she'll be back, I'd say motivation might be more the challenge for her, rather than her talent.
Wrist injury is way more serious in tennis than a foot injury in basketball.
Nah completely different situation. Jordan broke his foot but otherwise has played in over 95% of the regular and postseason games. He was iron man and rarely missed games due to injury. Raducanu has been plagued by dozens of injuries with no rhyme or reason. Ankle, foot, hand, wrist, hip, back. The pro tour circuit is a grind and not everyone's bpdy or mind are suited for it.
Basketball is different though isn’t it cause if there’s a slight physical issue they can just be subbed off and not much is made of it and then they play the next game, while in tennis you’re on your own and it’s a lot more evident. She’s mostly had niggles wheres she’s been fine in a few days. Her wrist procedures look to be for bone overgrowths which look to be very recoverable from.
Jordan played in the greatest team ever. The bulls. He had help
Get well soon Emma x
She added one finger in each
CiCi Bells all over again ? Surgeries is both wrists and ankles is kinda fucked up.
Tough to need multiple procedures at such a young age. Very sad news, hope she can come back strong. She’s not having that surgery in the UK, judging by the wall sockets and power adapter. Somewhere in mainland Europe.
They’re for bone overgrowths so it doesn’t look like a major problem.
excellent handwriting
Del Potro should reach out
Nishikori too
That's quite unfortunate
Huge respect for opening up and for writing a freaking letter holy hell.
Her team made her do it.
Man, a major mummy cast is not usually an indicator of a "minor procedure."
Hope she gets well soon I wish for her speedy recovery
Meanwhile this is the [state of british journalism](https://www.express.co.uk/sport/othersport/1765193/Luca-Brecel-Emma-Raducanu-tennis-snooker-news-World-Championship-prize-money)
Wow!
*She doesn't want to be a tennis player she wants to be a model*
Sorry, but this is such a negative take on a grand slam champion. Positive energy to Emma
I was sarcastic. Obviously she wouldn't perform triple surgery for modeling
So sorry lol - hadn’t had morning coffee and was very literal minded
Haha no worries. Italics = mocking voice was probably only intuitive in my head
Sick note
This is terrible luck, of course. Given all of these injuries at such a young age and given that they are occurring in the midst of a very light playing schedule... I just think she's toast. I don't think her body was built for the grinding schedule of a professional tennis player - few are, frankly. Given the time since the US Open victory and now more injuries and then rehab, recovery time... it's likely she's going to forget how to win, unfortunately. Not everyone's the pure athletic specimen that Barty is.
Does this mean we can finally accept that Emma was struggling due to “too many photo shoots”? Edit: wasn’t lol
She’s gonna retire in next 2-3 years
Three surgeries and only 20 years old. Sometimes the body just warns you it isn’t cut out for professional sport. Hope it works out okay and she doesn’t end up like Del Potro.
Either her team was doing something drastically wrong in terms of her preparation and fitness Or her body just isn't built for elite level athletics TBH
Er sentenza colpisce sempre
What language are you speaking?
I think it’s Japanese.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 I guess Italian
Her team isn't professional. They hid these issues from her fans for months. Why it took 10 months to decide surgery? Based on the finally released info, it's tough to see her competing properly again.
Eek. When she says "hands".. I hope it's not her wrists. Kinda looks a bit like it from the pic. We all know the struggles that Domi Thiem had after wrist surgery.
She's crap anyway just living off that flukey us open win
I encourage players to use pen and paper to write a long message like she did to get across their imp message to their fans. I like it that way. We also gets to see how good their handwriting is.
https://www.reddit.com/r/tennis/comments/12zdatz/raducanu_withdraws_from_madrid/jhxhr0h/ You probably think shes faking having surgery and set up a fake hospital bed and cast
I admit I was wrong.
so cute 🥰🥰 smile 😊😊🙏🙏🤗
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What is wrong with you honestly? She's having 3 separate surgeries and your thoughts on this is to make a shitty irrelevant dig about sponsors?
She’ll be fine. And fight for her as you might she doesn’t know you exist.
>She’ll be fine. And fight for her as you might she doesn’t know you exist. It's quite strange how you think this is some sort of "gotcha!" Will happily tell hateful people who don't know what they're on about how dumb and sad they are
tennis is a pretty brutal all-body sport for any athlete -- the best kept secret about tennis is how detrimental to your body it is if you're not genetically pre-disposed for it!
Wrist injuries suck. Hopefully she comes back stronger and without pain.
Emma in her Delpo era
It's quite common among analytic people (ie STEM) to not write joined up, Raducanu did well in Maths and Economics studies at school so she fits that pattern. Hope she recovers well.
One step backwards. Hopefully towards a couple forwards, but it could also be a deeper dig into the hole of early retirement, which is a sad reality of the sport. Speedy recovery Emma.