British tennis star Emma Raducanu suffered another devastating setback in her path back to glory today when she crashed out of the Australian Open after retching, complaining of breathing difficulties and clutching her chest. The 21-year-old former US Open champion, playing only her fourth match since returning from eight months out and three surgeries, faced a string of physical difficulties during her second-round exit to China’s Wang Yafan at Melbourne Park.
Raducanu had battled back strongly from a set and a break down to force a deciding set. But she then appeared to struggle with breathing difficulties, clutching at her chest and abdomen before calling the trainer after two games. The former British number one had her blood pressure checked and took some pills before resuming, and she battled hard to try to turn the match around but Wang held firm to win 6-4 4-6 6-4 after two hours and 55 minutes.
Raducanu’s exit followed those of Katie Boulter and Jack Draper and means Cameron Norrie, who battled from two sets down earlier to beat Giulio Zeppieri, is the only British player through to the third round. Raducanu’s career has stuttered since her US Open triumph in September 2021, with her withdrawing from three events mid-match including at Wimbledon due to fitness problems, suffering early exits in tournaments and having surgery on both wrists and one ankle.
Emma Raducanu sits in a towel during a medical timeout at the Australian Open today
Speaking after the match, Raducanu told reporters: ‘Now I feel a little bit better. During the match, I’d say in the third set I was 30-Love up serving. ‘Then all of a sudden, I just felt so sick, just really weak and nauseous. Throughout the third set, I think everyone could see it was a bit of a battle. ‘Like physically, body-wise, I felt fine. It was more that I was throwing up in my mouth. Then after the match, it came out. Now I’m OK. Yeah, I’ll get over it. It just sucks with the timing. I felt good. I felt fine. Yeah, I just had a bit of a bug.’
Saying that she was determined not to retire, Raducanu added: ‘There was no way I was going to pull out. She was going to have to beat me, and she did. She served it out. ‘I think the last year off and also just with the amount of niggles and everything that I had, the setbacks, it did make me a lot tougher.’
Emma Raducanu during a press conference today after losing her second round match
Responding to whether nerves could have caused her sickness, Raducanu replied: ‘No way because I won the second set, I was actually feeling good about my tennis. ‘I felt physically good, mentally, I don’t know why, I just felt really composed the entire time. Even in the first set when I was making a ton of errors with the wind, I kind of always had this feeling that I was coming back, and just tidy up the errors.’
Raducanu, who has spoken in recent of weeks about seeing this comeback as a reset after her US Open triumph, also said: ‘I’m feeling very positive. I really just want to play a full season. ‘The encouraging thing is, even though I played two back-to-back three-setters in Auckland, a three-setter today, body-wise, strength-wise, I didn’t come up with any random niggles. ‘That just happened throughout the match. It was just me throwing up. That’s fine. That’s not normal, but it’s like a one-off.’
Earlier in the Australian Open, Raducanu comfortably won her first-round match against Shelby Rogers, but the American looked very rusty after a long break herself which made it difficult to gauge the 21-year-old’s true level. This was a much bigger test, with Wang a former top-50 player now ranked 94 who is still working her way back up the game after choosing not to travel amid China’s restrictive Covid policies.
The 29-year-old’s game initially held up better than Raducanu’s in the breezy conditions and she opened a 5-2 lead in the first set. The match was again being played on the relatively small 1573 Arena, and queues stretched from each entrance with fans eager to watch the contest. Raducanu had the majority of the support, and she sparked hopes of a comeback by winning consecutive games to make it 5-4, but Wang served it out at the second time of asking.
Speaking during the medical break as Raducanu’s blood pressure was taken, Russell Fuller, the tennis correspondent on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra, said: ‘We’ve got no real indication of what this is. ‘It could be illness as much as a physical problem. She’s looked quite winded in the last couple of games. There is no obvious sign of injury from the way she’s moving or showing any pain in a particular part of her body.’
He had earlier said: ‘We can see Raducanu taking in lungfuls of air. I wouldn’t say she’s hit the wall in terms of how she’s moving but it a noticable, very visible change that she looks so much more fatigued in this game.’ There were too many errors off the racket of the British player, and she dropped serve again at the start of the second set. But Raducanu dug in and gradually began to find her range, finally taking her fifth break point in a long fourth game to draw level.
The 21-year-old is determined to stick to an aggressive game plan following her comeback and her forehand was now looking the dominant shot. She broke to lead 5-3 with a sizzling cross-court winner but tentativeness crept in as she tried to serve out the set, with two chances going begging. Raducanu did not let the disappointment affect her, though, and refused to be hesitant when more chances arrived on Wang’s serve, drilling a backhand winner to clinch a mammoth 65-minute set.
Both players took a bathroom break but that did not alleviate the discomfort Raducanu was feeling, and there was doubt over whether she would be able to continue. She improved physically again as the match went on and will feel she could have turned the set around but a final backhand into the net signalled her demise. Reacting to to the result, Chanda Rubin, the American former world number six, told BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra: ‘Smart playing from Wang. ‘Very little that Raducanu did wrong but Wang played with such poise. Maybe Raducanu second guessed herself in the end.’
