Emma Raducanu is returning to tennis in a few days after months of hard work, and she spoke a bit about that recently.
We haven't seen Raducanu in a competitive environment for almost a year now. The Brit struggled with injuries at the start of 2023 and took time off to address those problems surgically.
She had three separate surgeries, after which she began a long recovery program. Some speculated that Raducanu would return late in 2023, but pretty quickly, it became apparent that she was targeting a 2024 return instead.
It kind of made sense becaue there was no reason to really rush. Getting healthy and ready for the new season made a lot of sense because she could treat it as a proper restart to her career.
On the flip side, some argued that Raducanu didn't care enough to return, which was only fueled by her frequent adventures outside of the tennis court.
In a recent talk with Tatler Asia, Raducanu explained that she does work hard but not too hard because there is balance to be found. Not enough work is not good enough, but too much work is also not good enough.
I think anyone who’s actually worked with and around me knows that I’m a really hard worker. It’s true that if you put in the hours and hours and hours and hours, it’s going to get you there. But at some point, you get diminishing returns, and it’s just not the most efficient way to train or learn, and knowing when to pull back and actually work smarter is when you get more out of yourself and better results.
In that sense, these previous months continued both a lot of hard work on the courts and also plenty of time away from the courts, which is the perfect balance that she seeks.