Emma Raducanu is returning to tennis in about ten days, and she'll have to be patient due to her lack of experience.
Emma Raducanu achieved a lot in professional tennis, having a Grand Slam trophy in her cabinet, but she's still very inexperienced as a player. She hasn't played a full season, and she still hasn't played that many matches and, more importantly - played regularly.
Tennis is all about consistency, and she hasn't been consistent in that regard. One week, she's really good but then fails to keep it up, and it's because she's never done it before. Experience matters so much in tennis, and she doesn't have it.
The lack of it will make this comeback quite tricky as she'll hit the wall eventually, and how she handles that will be important to how it goes. Compatriot Tim Henman talked about her comeback to Eurosport and laid out what she might be facing.
It’s massively exciting to have Raducanu coming back. I think it's important that everybody around tennis who's a fan, who's excited to see Raducanu back on the court, manages their expectations. She's been out for a long, long time and she's still massively inexperienced. She's played so few tour level events, she's played so few matches in her whole professional career.
What Henman is hoping for regarding Raducanu is pretty simple. He wants to see her remain healthy and play for consecutive weeks because she needs that experience to settle back into the tennis lifestyle nicely. The ability is not in question, according to the former player.
So for me, from, let's say, the first three, four months of the year, I think if she could stay injury free and play a whole series of tournaments without any setbacks, I think that would be fantastic because there is no doubt about her ability.
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