Emma Raducanu opens up about illness after Australian Open exit: ‘I’ll get over it, it just sucks with the timing’

Emma Raducanu shed some light on the illness she was suffering with during her second-round Australian Open loss to Wang Yafan.

Despite coming from a break down in the second set to force a decider, Raducanu was defeated 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 by her opponent after two hours and 56 minutes.

The 21-year-old Brit said afterwards that she had felt ‘awful’ during the exchange, but setbacks throughout the last year have made her ‘tougher’ and prevented her retirement from the match.

‘I think, to be honest, with what I went through last year, you feel awful right now, at some points I couldn't really see the ball very well,” Raducanu said during her post-match press conference.

“But I think with everything I went through last year; it's made me so much tougher.

‘’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.’’

Raducanu revealed that the issue had not been physical, but more sickness related.

‘’During the match, I was 30-0 up serving, then all of a sudden, I felt so sick, really weak and nauseous,’’ she said.

‘’I think everyone could see it was a bit of a battle throughout the third set.

“Like physically, body-wise, I felt fine. It was more I was throwing up in my mouth. Then after the match, it came out.

‘’Now I'm okay. Yeah, I'll get over it. It just sucks with the timing.’’

Despite the disappointing result, the 2021 US Open champion insisted she is feeling ‘positive’ with her overall performance and must simply concentrate on ‘tidying up’ her game after months away from the tour.

‘’I'm very positive, and very happy with how my body is,’’ Raducanu continued.

‘’I think the wrist in particular was something that I struggled with when coming back because I just had a setback for a few months, so I couldn't play until late November again.

“Now I feel good, the ankle feels good. If I keep my work consistent, like I said previously, I have a good shot.

‘’This is obviously only my first trip back. I need to tidy up some of the areas, a bit of technique and also get used to playing matches outdoors, as well, because the conditions today were very windy.

“I think she handled it a lot better, the wind. She jumbled me, she moon-balled me. She gave me a lot of these scrappy little shots, but it worked.’’