Emma Raducanu has revealed her definition of success is now “staying healthy in the long run” after the injury nightmare she endured in 2023.
The 2021 US Open winner highlighted the importance of training smart over training hard and divulged that her priority for this year is developing her game rather than playing a lot of events.
Raducanu returned to the top 100 of the WTA Rankings this week after her run to the fourth round at Wimbledon saw her jump 41 places from 135th to 94th. The 21-year-old holds an impressive 16-10 record this season, having played 10 tournaments and also two matches in the Billie Jean King qualifying round.
The former world No 10 started 2024 ranked 301st in the world as she had not played since April 2023 due to injury. Raducanu underwent surgery on both her wrists and her ankle in May last year.
Raducanu has opted to skip the upcoming Paris Olympics to focus on the North American hard-court swing building up to the US Open. She will next play at the WTA 500 event in Washington, which will begin on July 29.
In an interview with Tennis Magazin, Raducanu addressed whether her definition of success had changed after her injury-enforced absence from the tour. She said:
“Yes, it has. Success in the long run is staying healthy. It’s about doing everything I can to avoid training hard, but training smart, to stay injury free. I’ve experienced how time flies when you can’t train or play for a long time. It’s not really fun. Success is doing everything I can to make sure I’m in that position to train and stay healthy.”
She also mentioned, “I have reassessed my goals for this year a few times. I think my goals will change throughout the year. My priority is to develop my game, which means that I probably won’t play too many tournaments this year. I don’t want to make up for lost time from last year by only playing tournaments. It’s about building a concrete and important foundation to be in good playing and physical shape over the next few years.”
Asked what she learned about herself when she could not play tennis, Raducanu said:
“I’ve learned a lot about myself. To feel at my best in tennis or anything else, I need to be fresh and hungry. That doesn’t necessarily happen for me through training or playing. I need to keep that edge and that spark in my game. After the break, I was eager to get back to playing. It can be exhausting playing on the tour week after week and taking on all the responsibilities that come with being a tennis professional. For me, the best solution is to do things my way. Before I came on tour, that was the best way for me. It worked well.”
