Emma Raducanu overcame a long medical time-out at the French Open to gain first-round victory

FRANCE: Emma Raducanu pushed through despite a long medical time-out to win an intense three-set match against China’s Wang Xinyu in the first round of the French Open. 

The 22-year-old athlete was ahead with a score of 6-5 in the first set when she needed to ask for medical assistance. She was then seen putting ice on her face, and her blood pressure was checked.

Due to what happened, there were speculations on whether Raducanu would exit the match, given her history with injuries and illnesses. However, three minutes after the treatment, she returned to the court and eventually won the match. With her victory, she is bound to have an exciting match against four-time champion Iga Swiatek. 

Raducanu expressed: “I think I’m actually really proud of today’s match, more so than a lot of the matches that I played recently or in general, because I woke up and I felt really sick, to be honest.” 

She added: “I felt bad from the morning. I was just trying and fighting through that. It was really difficult. You know, in the first set, I just felt it straight away and it didn’t really go away throughout the whole match… To have kind of come through that and overcome how I was feeling, I’m really happy with, and I didn’t let it kind of, you know…it would have been easy to kind of let it drag me down.” 

Highlights of the game

Before the match started, Raducanu admitted that the back injury she sustained in Strasbourg last week had yet to fully recover. She needed to overcome her fear of needles to receive acupuncture treatment to treat her concerns. While her movement on court appeared unaffected, her energy levels seemed low. 

The Chinese athlete managed to take over the second set, but Raducanu was determined and came through with an impressive 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 win despite disappearing from the court for quite some time. Moreover, the match was the longest clay-court battle of Raducanu’s career, having a final time of two hours and 44 minutes.

In a social media post shared by the LTA, it stated: “Job done for @EmmaRaducanu at @rolandgarros” 

Netizens commented on the post and said: “She really is back to her best. Call me crazy, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she upsets Swiatek in the next round, she hasn’t been playing well at all lately,” and “Best of luck for your 2nd GS” 

In another social media post, Raducanu personally shared her Paris experience with a caption: “emma à paris 🥐”

More netizens showed their support to the young athlete and remarked: “Well played! Hope you are feeling better now 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻”, “Very nice pictures Emma! Paris is a beautiful city, you are a wonderful girl beside that my favorite tennis player! I will always support you! Let’s go champ! ❤️❤️❤️”, and “Congrats for surviving the first round 😀”