Emma Raducanu had a bad time at the ASB Classic in Auckland this year, but the Brit is coming back next year to the surprise of many.
Emma Raducanu missed much of this year due to various injuries, which resulted in a triple surgery back in spring. Those troubles kind of started in Auckland for Raducanu as she badly rolled her ankle at the event, which never healed properly, requiring a surgical intervention weeks later.
Raducanu was absolutely enraged by the slippery courts and blamed the organizers for her injury. While ankle rolls tend to happen on tennis courts, a slipper court can certainly contribute to that.
This year's event was badly affected by rain, which is why matches were moved indoors. Raducanu injured herself in one of those indoor matches.
Fast forward a year, and she's returning to the event she publicly trashed last year, which is certainly an interesting development. Event director Nicolas Lamperin explained why she's coming back.
We kept in touch with Emma throughout the year. She decided to go for surgery in April, after Stuttgart and it was going to be a long process for her. When we touched base in early July, we didn’t have much of an update, because it was still in the early stage.
Lamperin actually hinted at her possibly coming back earlier this year in an interview, so for him, it's probably not that shocking. The event is obviously delighted to have her back as she's a crowd magnet, but let's hope things go smoothly this year.
But we kept the dialogue going and said we know how it works, players who’ve been away from the Tour get a protected ranking. However, the number of tournaments they can do with their protected ranking is limited, so whenever they can get wildcards on top of their protected ranking it gives them longer to get back on the Tour.
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