Emma Raducanu blamed heavy fatigue and exhaustion on her dreadful Madrid Open performance and loss as the 21-year-old Briton is now planning to take some time off before resuming practice and tennis activities.
On Wednesday, Raducanu kicked off and also concluded her second Madrid campaign after qualifier Maria Lourdes Carle ousted her 6-2 6-2 in the first round.
After a couple of strong performances and results in the last few weeks, Raducanu entered the Carle match as the favorite. But in Madrid – not only that Raducanu failed to clinch another notable result – but she also looked unrecognizable on the court.
Before coming to Madrid, Raducanu led Great Britain to a hard-fought Billie Jean King Cup qualifiers win over France on the road and she also made the Stuttgart quarterfinal last week before losing to world No. 1 Iga Swiatek.
But against 82nd-ranked Carle, Raducanu lost her serve a total of five times and ended up losing with just four games won during the entire match.
Emma Raducanu © Getty Images Sport – Clive Brunskill
Raducanu explains what went wrong against Carle
“I would say the last few weeks have been a lot. Starting from Billie Jean King Cup, I haven’t stopped,” Raducanu said after the loss.
“It’s just been back-to-back and I was very happy being able to help carry the team in BJK Cup and then straight to Stuttgart with no rest and then straight here and trying to adapt to the conditions which are very different because it’s outdoors and I was playing indoors for the last month. Many factors that have made it very difficult to fully compete today but overall I’ve been playing pretty well.”
Emma Raducanu © Getty Images Sport – Clive Brunskill
Since Raducanu concluded her Madrid campaign early, she now has enough time to rest and also prepare well for the Rome Open, which starts on May 7th.
“I think I’m going to just take a few days off and rest a little bit because I’ve been going non-stop for the last month,” Raducanu shared.
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