FILE PHOTO: Britain’s Emma Raducanu. REUTERS/Hannah Mckay
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Former U.S. Open champion Emma Raducanu says she feels “reborn” as she prepares to play her first match of 2024 on the Auckland tennis basic.
The 21-year-old Raducanu has been out of motion since April after wrist and knee operations and says she feels reinvigorated at the beginning of a brand new season.
“I really feel reborn in a means, I really feel contemporary,” the 2021 main winner informed reporters. “I really feel prepared, I really feel pleased, I really feel excited.
“So general I’m feeling optimistic and lighter. For 2 years after the U.S. Open I felt possibly a bit extra like with a weight on my shoulders, however now I really feel fully contemporary.”
Raducanu suffered an ankle harm in Auckland final yr however performed via the ache on the Australian Open. By April she had come to comprehend she needed to take trip for surgical procedure.
“I used to be having wrist pains for 5 months earlier than I got here to Auckland so I used to be managing it, maintaining it going and beneath wraps as a lot as I might,” Raducanu stated. “I knew it was inevitable if I needed to repair the issue however I needed to maintain going via the season.
“I’m feeling so much higher now, I’m feeling stronger. I really feel fitter, extra optimistic and refreshed so I’m actually trying ahead to this yr.”
Raducanu will play a qualifier within the first spherical of the Auckland match on Monday or Tuesday.
In the meantime, the 2023 U.S. Open champ Coco Gauff is drawn to play American compatriot Claire Liu within the first spherical as she begins her 2024 season and protection of the Auckland singles title.
After her main win at residence, Gauff has grow to be the standard-bearer for U.S. ladies’s tennis however it’s a mantle she bears reluctantly.
“Public publicity clever and rating clever, technically I’m on the entrance, however all my counterparts are older than me, so I don’t actually really feel like that,” Gauff stated. “So, I don’t really feel like I’m main them in any means or main it.
“Perhaps for (the media) it seems like that. However for us, or no less than for me, I simply really feel like I’m simply specializing in me. I’m not making an attempt to steer anyone. If something, I’m actually studying from them.”
Caroline Wozniacki will play Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina in spherical one as she performs on the Auckland match for the eighth time. The 33-year-old made a robust comeback in 2023 after taking three years away from tennis to start out a household.
“I used to be shocked by how excessive of a stage I used to be taking part in at from the get go,” Wozniacki stated. “It’s not straightforward coming again and taking part in matches after a month away and I had three and a half years away.
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“I didn’t contact a racquet for 3 years after which I got here again and began practising, bought into the rhythm and shortly discovered my toes on the match courtroom.”