Emma Raducanu gearing up for gruelling training block

Emma Raducanu is gearing up for four weeks of gruelling work for the first proper off-season training block of her career after her fitness was exposed in 57-minute defeat at Transylvania Open

  • Emma Raducanu preparing to get ready for the rigours of the tour next year
  • British No 1 has earmarked first proper off-season training block of her career 
  • It follows heavy quarter-final defeat to the powerful Marta Kostyuk on Friday

Emma Raducanu is preparing herself for a four-week grind of hard physical work to get herself ready for the rigours of the tour next year.

The British No 1 has earmarked mid-November until mid-December for the first proper off-season training block of her career. The physical gap between herself and the powerful Marta Kostyuk was evident in Friday evening’s heavy quarter-final defeat at the Transylvania Open in Cluj.

While the Ukrainian is only eight months older, it was plain how she has benefitted from many more years of concentrated work on the tour. She effectively turned professional at 15 — when Raducanu was still contemplating GCSEs.

Emma Raducanu is gearing up for the first proper off-season training block of her career

The Kent teenager recognises this as an area where she still has catching-up to do and part of that process will be to put in a full-on stint of training when she gets the opportunity. She complained of feeling lethargic while taking only three games off a former junior rival.

Raducanu still plans to wrap up her season at the Upper Austria Open in Linz starting a week on Monday and then will start the hard yards after taking a week off to recharge.

‘I’m going to do a full off-season for sure,’ she said. ‘After Linz I’ll probably have a week off just to mentally and physically refresh. It’s going to be my first pre-season and from what I’ve heard it’s a very difficult four weeks physically, so I just want to prepare for that and the next year.’

Raducanu suffered a heavy quarter-final defeat to the powerful Marta Kostyuk on Friday

Her only commitment in that time will be playing an exhibition match at London’s Royal Albert Hall on November 28.

A strong performance in Linz could help her end the season inside the world’s top 20, and her two wins in Romania will have nudged her up one or two places to 21 or 22. So little has Raducanu played on tour compared to her peers that it is difficult to say where her true ranking lies. At Wimbledon and the US Open it looked very much top 20. It has not been that way in her two tournaments since.

Raducanu remains non-committal about her coaching plans, but it is far from certain that she will end up being mentored by Spaniard Esteban Carrill, with whom she had a trial before Cluj.




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