Five days out from the start of Wimbledon, the question around Emma Raducanu is no longer how far she can go. It is whether she will start at all. The British No 1 returned to the All England Club practice courts on Saturday for the first time since Monday, but the session did little to settle nerves.
Raducanu took the court at Aorangi Park around midday with strapping wrapped around her right ankle and lower leg, before moving to Court Three for a hit with Anna Kalinskaya, the world No 20. She came through the opening stretch without obvious alarm — but largely hitting from a fixed position — and the mood shifted once live points began. After dropping four games in a row, Raducanu sat down courtside for treatment from physiotherapist Emma Stewart, resumed briefly, and then wrapped up roughly ten minutes ahead of schedule.
Within the hour, her pre-Wimbledon press conference, scheduled for Saturday afternoon, was pushed back to Sunday, with the time still to be confirmed. For a player whose participation was already under scrutiny, the postponement read as the loudest signal yet that all is not well.
The watch began on Wednesday evening, when Raducanu was photographed leaving Aorangi Park wearing a grey orthopaedic boot on her right foot. She did not appear on the official practice schedule on Thursday or Friday, and there were genuine concerns within the build-up that she might withdraw before Friday’s draw was released. She did not — and her name duly came out alongside Croatia’s Antonia Ruzic, the world No 60, for a first-round tie pencilled in for 1pm on Monday.
That she is in the draw is the good news. The rest remains a live variable. Her team has consistently described the issue as a “niggle,” telling reporters she is “managing her load,” and an earlier reassurance from one of her representatives — “Emma is absolutely fine, she will play tomorrow” — was offered on Wednesday, before the missed Thursday and Friday sessions.
The precise nature of the problem has not been confirmed: reports have variously characterized it as a lower-leg, shin, foot or ankle issue, with the orthopedic boot pointing most plausibly to something below the knee. Raducanu herself has only acknowledged “a few niggles over the past few weeks,” dating the trouble to her run to the Queen’s Club final earlier this month.
The stakes give the uncertainty its edge. Seeded 30th, Raducanu has been handed a draw that runs straight back into the player who ended her last campaign: a potential third-round meeting with top seed Aryna Sabalenka, a rematch of last year’s Centre Court thriller, which Sabalenka edged in a high-quality straight-sets contest. The three-time Grand Slam champion leads their head-to-head 3-0, but the 2024 meeting was close enough to suggest Raducanu — at full fitness — could trouble her again.
Full fitness is the operative phrase. Ruzic is no gimme either: the Croatian beat Raducanu 6-1, 5-7, 6-2 in the Dubai first round in February, though the Briton was still labouring with the after-effects of a virus that night and required medical attention mid-match. That post-viral illness cost Raducanu roughly two and a half months in the spring, part of another stop-start season that also brought a first-round exit at Roland Garros before the grass lifted her again.
Queen’s was supposed to be the turning point. Reunited with Andrew Richardson — the coach who guided her to the 2021 US Open title — Raducanu reached the final on home soil, losing to Donna Vekić but leaving convinced, in her words, that she was “back and better.” Her decision to skip Nottingham afterwards drew criticism from Andy Roddick, but the logic was clear: bank the recovery time, arrive at Wimbledon fresh.
Instead, the fortnight between has been spent managing rather than sharpening. Sunday’s rescheduled press conference now becomes the next official checkpoint. Whether Raducanu fronts up — and what she says about her right leg — will tell tennis far more than any practice-court sighting has so far.
For now, the only safe conclusion is the one her own camp keeps returning to: she is being managed day to day. Monday at 1pm, the watch ends one way or the other.
