“I thrive in Asia. It’s where I truly feel like home,” Emma Raducanu reflected last year, sharing her connection to the region, especially China, where her mother hails from and her grandmother still lives. Yet, injuries have repeatedly halted her momentum. Last year, sprained ligaments in her left foot at the Hana Bank Korea Open in Seoul. This year, fate struck again as she was forced to retire from her first-round match at the Wuhan Open due to illness. But through every setback, the former US Open champion’s grit and hunger remain unshaken, now shining through as she courageously shares her health update after her mid-match retirement.
On Threads, Raducanu recently shared an image that told its own quiet story: perched on a hospital bed in China, wearing a navy-blue Nike hoodie and dark sunglasses, she appeared fragile yet composed. Beneath the photo, she wrote: “Last day at the doctors in Wuhan. Feeling better now. Shame I couldn’t continue there, but thank you for the messages,” punctuated by a love heart emoji wrapped in a bandage. A message that resonated deeply, a subtle reminder that behind every athlete’s fierce exterior lies a human fighting unseen battles.
It was supposed to be another stepping stone in Emma Raducanu’s steady return to form, but fate had other plans. The 2021 US Open champion endured a narrow loss to Jessica Pegula in the round of 32 at the China Open in Beijing before setting her sights on Wuhan.
Yet, as she walked out onto Center Court in Hubei province to face Ann Li, the stage was set for a far different story, one marked not by triumph, but by trial. From the first few games, the signs were unmistakable. The British star was struggling to breathe freely in the sweltering, oppressive heat that blanketed the court like a furnace.
