Emma Raducanu was enjoying some solid time on the clay courts, but her Italian Open experience was cut short due to a back injury.
Raducanu had high hopes for the 2022 clay season, hoping to get as much playing time as possible to develop her skills on the surface. It’s a surface that she largely didn’t play on much so far in her career.
Her performances were decent in Madrid, even though the courts at that WTA 1000 event play quite differently compared to usual clay. Lots of fans were excited to see how she could do on a proper clay court in Rome, but she didn't get to fully showcase her craft in the Italian capital.
Raducanu got a challenging draw having to face Bianca Andreescu in the opening round, but that was hardly her only issue. She was also dealing with a back injury, which she spoke about ahead of the event, noting that it bothered her.
It bothered her quite a bit in the match as Raducanu found herself down very quickly. At 5-2 for Andreescu, the British player called the physio and had an off-the-court medical timeout.
Those are generally bad news and it proved so when she retired a few games after that. Andreescu had won the opening set 6-2 and then at 2-1 in the second set, Raducanu made the decision to retire from the match.
It was clear that she was not able to play the way she wanted, and there was not much she could do. A loss was guaranteed, so Raducanu elected to simply stop the match before her condition got any worse.
The French Open is looming, and the British player likely didn’t want to do anything that would jeopardize that event. It was a disappointing result for Raducanu who will be looking to bounce back in the following weeks.
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