Leading injury prevention and athlete welfare expert Stephen Smith has spoken to Tennis365 about Emma Raducanu’s physical struggles ahead of the Brit’s long-awaited return.
Raducanu’s last match was her 6-1, 6-1 defeat to Amanda Anisimova in the third round at the WTA 1000 tournament in Indian Wells on 8 March.
The 23-year-old has been kept away from the tour by a post-viral illness having contracted a virus during the Middle East swing in February.
After pulling out of scheduled tournaments in Miami, Linz and Madrid, Raducanu was set to make her comeback at the Italian Open last week.
However, Raducanu withdrew from Rome citing the same post-viral symptoms just minutes after talking to reporters on the opening day of the WTA 1000 event.
Speaking in Rome about the illness, Raducanu said: “Post-viral, it’s quite hard. You feel drained, you feel tired, no energy. It’s difficult, and it lingered for quite a while.
“Right now, I wouldn’t say I’m 100%. I’m still building my way back. It is difficult to then kind of maintain it.”
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Raducanu has struggled to stay healthy consistently throughout her short career to date.
The 2021 US Open winner ended her 2025 season early in mid-October having dealt with physical issues at tournaments in China. Her preparations for the 2026 campaign were then disrupted by a bone injury in her foot that restricted her ability to train.
In May 2023, Raducanu underwent surgeries on both her wrists and her ankle, which ruled her out for the remainder of the season.
Smith, who is the founder and CEO of Kitman Labs — the world’s leading sports science and performance intelligence company — spoke about the impact of Raducanu spending so much time on the sidelines.
“We don’t know exactly what the condition (Raducanu’s post-viral illness) is,” Smith said in an exclusive interview with Tennis365.
“I’d be careful not to oversimplify it, because injury and illness relationships are usually complex.
“What we do know is that repeated interruptions make it very difficult for any tennis player to build rhythm and physical continuity.
“Tennis conditioning is cumulative. Athletes need consistent exposure to training, competition, and to recovery cycles.
“So, when preparation is repeatedly interrupted like it has been for her, it can affect physical robustness, it can affect match sharpness, it can affect confidence in the body and the ability to tolerate load and tolerate competition load.
“One of the hardest things in elite tennis is not necessarily peak performance once; it’s sustaining continuity over months across different surfaces and travel demands.
“Obviously, she’s had these repeated bouts [of absence], and her team will be looking at, ‘How do we actually stop that cycle? And how do we start to build that continuity back into what she’s doing?’
“And hopefully for the game, they and her can figure that out pretty fast, because she’s a phenomenal talent and wonderful to be able to watch when she’s at peak condition.”
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