Emma Raducanu is happy about a competitive start to her 2023 season as she is set to take on Ons Jabeur in Abu Dhabi later today.
They were scheduled to play in Abu Dhabi last year but Raducanu was unable to make it. The British player is looking forward to a competitive clash to start the year and notes it's crucial as we'll finally get to to see her play Jabeur.
“I think that the sense of competition and being able to have a match before next season starts is really important and I’ll be able to improve from there, see where I’m at competitively," said Raducanu ahead of the match.
It will be her first match since the Ostrava Open when she lost to Daria Kasatkina. A wrist injury prevented her from playing for the rest of the year and she briefly addressed not playing for a while and how that will impact the match:
"It’s been a while since the last tournament so yeah, just putting more time on the tennis court really and looking forward to playing this event."