Andy Roddick has offered Emma Raducanu some important advice as she prepares to make her return after having three different surgeries. The former world No 10 was set to play an exhibition event next month but was forced to pull out when she suffered a setback with her recovery. It remains to be seen when she decides to make a comeback but Roddick believes that she must play a warm-up tournament instead of heading straight to the Australian Open.
Raducanu has been out of action since she underwent operations on both of her wrists and one ankle in May. While the 2021 US Open champion hasn’t announced an official comeback date, she recently confirmed that she wanted to be back at the start of the 2024 season – indicating a potential return in Australia.
But there were some fresh concerns when the 21-year-old was forced to withdraw from the MGM Macau Tennis Masters, an exhibition tournament taking place on the first weekend of December following a setback with her wrist. However, the decision was said to be a precautionary one that Raducanu made to allow organisers time to find a replacement incase she wasn’t ready.
It means that Raducanu won’t be seen on a tennis court until January at the earliest. But former world No 1 Roddick has urged the Brit to play a warm-up event instead of heading straight into the Australian Open. “It’s tough because we don’t know if it’s a recurrence of the same two injuries that she has or if it’s a fitness issue or maybe the training is going so well they don’t want to interrupt a really cohesive training block with a trip to Macau in December,” the American told Betway, discussing her withdrawal from the exhibition.
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“That’s always an awkward time to play an exhibition event. I liked playing them right after the season ends or right before the season begins because it gives you more uninterrupted training. Maybe that’s just what she felt she needed. I’d be guessing at this point.”
While Roddick wasn’t too concerned about Raducanu’s decision not to rush back to the Macau event, he thought that she needed to make the right decision about her comeback schedule. The 21-year-old isn’t part of Britain’s team at the United Cup, meaning that she would have to sign up to one of the 250 or 500-point tournaments ahead of the first Major of 2024.
He continued: “I know one thing that has to happen if she’s going to go start playing a Slam in Australia, she’s going to have to play something before. There’s going to have to be a 250, I would even like to see her play two events in the lead-up, because there’s just nothing guaranteed. You want those matches.”
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And the 2003 US Open winner thought that Raducanu could make an announcement very soon. “So I’d be curious to see if, in the next 10 days, two weeks, we hear anything else about her intended schedule,” he added.
Raducanu has been practising at the National Tennis Centre in recent weeks and, before her withdrawal from the Macau event, she shared her intentions to make it back onto the tour for the start of 2024. “I will be back for the start of this season for sure, she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme last month.
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