Emma Raducanu held an infamous press conference at last year's Madrid Open, during which she answered most questions with one word.
The whole press conference ahead of last year's WTA 1000 tournament in Madrid ultimately ended up only in 58 words from the British player, which created many questions.
Many people were unhappy with how Raducanu handled the situation, but there was a lot unknown to the public then. Raducanu knew that she was going to withdraw from the tournament and have triple surgery, which obviously isn't something that will excite many people.
She knew she wouldn't play tennis for a long time, and her mood accurately reflected that. She talked about that infamous press conference in her interview with Sky Sports, mentioning how gutted she felt but also how she didn't really want to say anything even though she knew she was going to undergo surgery not long after that.
"Obviously, a lot was going on. I knew I was going to have to have surgery. I didn't want to say anything about it [in the press conference] but I was a bit gutted about that."
Fast-forward to now, and Raducanu is feeling much better about her tennis. She just had her best run since the 2021 US Open, winning four matches in a row.
The Brit hopes to keep it going at the Madrid Open even though she's also fatigued after playing so much tennis lately. All in all, the most important thing is that she's feeling much better compared to a year ago.
"I'm in a much better place with my tennis. Mentally I feel really confident and I'm just looking forward to the rest of the clay season, to be honest."
Her first match at the event will be against Maria Carle, a tricky clay player who will certainly give her a fight.
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