Emma Raducanu has revealed the foot injury she sustained at the Korea Open was the final straw that made her hire a full-time fitness trainer heading into 2025.
The British tennis star made her return from a long injury lay-off at the start of the year with a sporadic schedule in place to get her back up to full speed.
She began to show good progress by the summer and looked close to her best at Wimbledon.
However, fitness issues stunted her development once again, forcing her to miss multiple tournaments.
Emma Raducanu has brought in a full-time fitness trainer
PA
Raducanu had hoped to end the year on a high on the Asian swing, but she was forced to end her campaign early after sustaining a foot injury at the Korea Open.
The 2021 US Open champion has since brought in renowned tennis fitness coach Yutaka Nakamura to her team, who previously worked with Naomi Osaka and Maria Sharapova.
Nakamura will accompany Raducanu on the road for most of the year in 2025 as she bids to improve her fitness.
Raducanu admitted that her retirement from the Korea Open was ultimately what swayed her to make some big changes behind the scenes.
“That final foot injury just had me like, ‘I really want to stay healthy next year,’” Raducanu said.
“I really want to make sure that I’m consistently doing the physical stuff because every time I went on a trip this year, the fitness would inevitably take a back seat.
“I’d have press, tennis, whatever, and then the fitness, because I didn’t have someone able to adapt the session and it would just kind of not be done.
“That’s when I was really like, ‘Well, I want to bring someone in to come with me on the road, so I can continue the physical work’.
“I started looking at Yutaka and exploring that option. He came over for a trial a couple of months ago and it worked really well.
Emma Raducanu is hoping to put the injury issues behind her
PA
“That was probably a big moment where I really wanted to spend more time and energy on my fitness.
“I’m doing lighter weights, which I actually prefer, rather than just lifting really heavy weights.
“More movements and long ranges, because I’m very flexible, so I need to be strong in those ranges.
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“A lot of the niggles or injuries that I’ve had are because I’m too loose and I get into these positions that I’m not able to control yet. That’s one thing that we’re working on.”
Raducanu has been putting in the work at the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton in a bid to get ready for the new season.
She travels to Auckland later this week to prepare for her first tournament later this month.
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