Emma Raducanu's injury struggles have been a major talking point but her decision to get it sorted oddly hasn't.
Emma Raducanu's 2023 season has been similar to her previous year. It didn't start great with a rolled ankle during the Australian Summer and it only got worse in North America when a wrist issue became publicized as well.
The Brit was playing okay for the most part but the issues weren't going to go away prompting her to announce triple surgery, one for her right wrist, one for her left wrist and one for her ankle. The news became a major one quickly but there hasn't been much talk about it since then. It's odd because Becker thinks the surgeries are career-threatening as he revealed to The Guardian.
"The surgeries that she has had are, in my opinion, career-threatening. Having surgery on your playing wrist, and as a two-handed player, the other wrist – and then on your ankle – is tough to bear for a young woman."
The surgeries went well and Raducanu herself looked very upbeat after undergoing them but the recovery will be very complicated. We've seen players battle wrist injuries in the past and sometimes it goes well (Berrettini) and sometimes it goes very badly (Thiem). Having to overcome two of those will certainly be tricky.
Raducanu's career in itself hasn't been the most stable one. There has been a lot of turnover, especially in the coaching staff which is something that was scrutinized in the media itself. Her former coach recently spoke about their split which didn't make a lot of people feel any better about it. For Becker, it's clear that all of that hindered her as well, not just the injuries.
As a young woman, all of a sudden being on top of the mountain, you have to really dig in and find the resources and the team around you to guide you through the next 10 years. Its about mindset and talent, team, approach and circumstances. She’s not the first one who wasn’t able to do it. And she won’t be the last. But if she was good enough to win a Grand Slam once, she’s good enough to win one again.
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