Emma Raducanu celebrates in Eastbourne

Emma Raducanu’s run at the LTA’s Rothesay International Eastbourne came to an end with a comprehensive defeat against Daria Kasitkina, but she was in an upbeat mood as she looked forward to her first appeaance at Wimbledon in 2022.

This is what she said about her week in Eastbourne and what she hopes is to come at the All England Club.

How do you assess your week?

I’m pleased to have had three matches. I think it builds towards my match fitness, builds towards my bank of experience playing in all sorts of conditions, I would say. I think today especially it was very difficult, and I just didn’t handle it very well.
I’d say, yeah, I think I just need to learn to be more willing to adapt

I’d say I hadn’t really played many matches in that level of wind. Daria actually plays really good in those conditions, because she makes it very awkward for the opponent. I just think she handled it a lot better.

Can you take positives from the week in Eastbourne?

I think I put some good level out again. Just to be able to back up a week like Nottingham, obviously I’m very happy with.
I think the biggest win for me is I was able to play three matches back to back. Today physically I actually felt fine. It wasn’t to do with anything being in pain and three high-level matches.

Also yesterday the match was close to three hours. Plus the warmup before, I played almost four hours on court, and this morning I pulled up completely fine. I mean, I was surprised about it. That has to be a huge win. That’s a big positive.

I spoke a little bit yesterday just overcoming some things, and I did that. Yeah, have just been really enjoying my tennis, which is what I said at the start of the week, and the fact that, you know, today hasn’t really dented my confidence at all or my approach or mentality is a massive win for me.

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What word would you pick to describe your grass court season so far?

I would say “resilient” is the word that I always pick, just because I just keep finding myself coming back to it, overcoming challenges, and yeah, “resilience.”

Are you optimistic heading into Wimbledon?

I feel good. I think I should be very confident. I feel like I have every right to be in the position that I am now because I have been training, I have been working for it. I think that, you know, losing today means I get a day off tomorrow and then get to train at Wimbledon.

So you have to just spin everything to be a positive. For me, that’s how I’m going to spin it right now, but I’m looking forward to it. Like, I’m very happy to be back in London.

It’s where I call home. It’s where I missed last year so much. Spoke a little bit about the feeling of going to Wimbledon last year, the commitments, wanting to do everything to be on the other side of the playing. Yeah, I think that’s going to be a very important feeling for me to remember next week.

Did you feel tired in the match against Kasatkina?

I wasn’t tired at all. I was feeling really good. I think I just dealt with the circumstances badly. Yeah, was very inflexible in my approach. Like, that’s my honest reflection of the match. But physically I’m in a really good spot, and yeah, I could easily go and train now or train tomorrow.

Do you have different plans to turn to during a match?

I think I always want to live and die by my strike, and that’s got me quite far in other situations. Like yesterday, for example.

I think just not trying to play so well and just accepting that you’re not going to feel good out there, like, you’re not going to feel like you’re playing good tennis.And just being less stubborn.

I thought I was very stubborn in the wrong way out there. Stubborn is one of my character traits. Sometimes it works for me, but sometimes it works against me. So I think that’s just part of me maturing a tennis player too.