Emma Raducanu has been scolded for her ‘mind-blowing’ abbreviated tennis schedule by strength and conditioning coach Kieron Vorster.
The British star is currently ruled out with injury again after spraining a ligament in her left foot, which forced her to withdraw from the China Open.
Vorster, who has worked with a number of former tennis players, including Tim Henman, feels the issue is that Raducanu is simply not playing enough matches.
Raducanu has endured a series of mixed results this year, with her best moments coming during the grass-court swing, when she defeated two top 10 opponents.
But the 2021 US Open champion has suffered some poor results, too, particularly at the Madrid Open and Flushing Meadows, while she also decided to skip Roland-Garros and the Olympics.
‘She just doesn’t play enough matches,’ Vorster told the Daily Mail. ‘She plays an abbreviated clay court season, because she’s got a long grass court season and hard court season coming up and she doesn’t want to be burnt out or get injured.
‘Then she was hurt against Lulu Sun in the round of 16 at Wimbledon, then plays one hard court event, goes to the US Open undercooked and loses first round.
‘I think there could potentially be a lot of ‘yes’ people around her, instead of people telling her what she doesn’t want to hear, ‘You know what, Emma, you need to get out there and play’.
‘She’s a good player. That’s not the issue. But this abbreviated schedule is just mind-blowing.
‘There’s too many people around her. She’s got a guy from IMG (the agency who represent her) travelling with her every single week.
‘The tennis world’s gone crazy – gone are the days where you just have your coach and your physical trainer.’
Raducanu massively struggled with injury problems across 2022 and 2023 and decided to have triple surgery last year to address various issues.
She returned to the WTA Tour in January and has played a total of 13 events so far this year. That’s seven less than the target Henman set for her back in February.
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