Emma Raducanu is hopeful her health problems are behind her as she prepares for her opening match at the French Open on Sunday. The British No 1 takes on Argentina’s Solana Sierra in the first round for her second match since March after two-and-a-half months out with a post-viral illness.
She lost a close contest with Diane Parry in her opening match in Strasbourg this week, but being healthy again is the most important thing for the 23-year-old. “I feel a lot better,” she said.
“I thought I’d completely flipped it. There’s just been a little bit of a lingering cough. But I feel, health-wise, really good. I played a really positive match in Strasbourg in the sense it was over two hours and physically I pulled up really well.”
Raducanu’s absence meant she dropped out of the top 32 and is therefore unseeded in Paris. She avoided the big names, but the 21-year-old Sierra, who is ranked 64th, is at home on clay, while she made a surprise run to the fourth round of Wimbledon last year.
Raducanu said: “It’s going to be a really tricky first round, especially coming in light on matches, but I’m just proud of how I’m approaching every day, proud of the work I’m putting in.
“I know I’m going to have to play really good tennis and be aggressive. The conditions are pretty lively in the practice days, as the weather is hot, but that could be a good thing.”
With Jack Draper sidelined through injury, Cameron Norrie appeared to be the best hope of a deep British run, but the 20th seed revealed he is struggling with a rib injury. “I haven’t been able to hit since I’ve arrived here, so just been enjoying Paris and resting,” he said. “But I think I needed the rest, so maybe it’s a good thing. I really know I’m feeling the ball well. Luckily, I’m scheduled on Tuesday so I have some time to recover. Hopefully I can be good to play.”
Norrie, who takes on Paraguay’s Adolfo Daniel Vallejo first up, said he may have overtrained, including playing a five-set training match against the American Ben Shelton lasting nearly five hours.
There are six British players in the main draws, with Norrie joined in the men’s singles by Jacob Fearnley and the qualifier Toby Samuel. Fearnley has also been battling a rib problem this season and has struggled to back up his stellar first season on tour, winning seven matches all year. He has the carrot of a second-round match with the world No 1, Jannik Sinner, if he can see off Juan Manuel Cerundolo.
The 24-year-old, who has started working with Andy Murray’s former fitness trainer Matt Little, said: “I did go up the rankings pretty fast and maybe didn’t have the time to really reflect on it and appreciate it for what it was. And maybe got too far ahead of myself. Life in general, there’s ups and downs, and just on a little bit of a down right now, but no reason why I can’t get back up.”
Samuel faces the eighth seed, Australia’s Alex de Minaur, in his first grand slam appearance while in the women’s draw Katie Boulter plays the wild card Akasha Urhobo and Fran Jones meets Beatriz Haddad Maia.
