Emma Raducanu has been sidelined for the rest of the year, despite returning to the practice court in August for the first time since undergoing surgery; Raducanu is currently without a coach after parting ways with Sebastian Sachs - her fifth coach in under two years
Thursday 21 September 2023 08:26, UK
Emma Raducanu has revealed she is planning to return in 2024 as she continues her recovery after having operations on both wrists and one ankle.
Raducanu missed the French Open, Wimbledon and US Open this year after undergoing surgery at the start of May.
The 20-year-old, who fell out of the world's top 200 this week, had hoped for an autumn comeback after she returned to the practice court last month.
She has yet to go beyond the second round of a Grand Slam since winning the 2021 US Open and has also struggled with various injuries.
"Next season I'll be back. This season all the slams were finished so it was difficult to watch them go by but I was trying to stay in my lane as much as possible and keep focused on my recovery," she told BBC Sport.
This year, Raducanu sustained a left ankle injury in January, before losing to Coco Gauff in the second round of the Australian Open.
She had a month off due to tonsillitis and her best run came at Indian Wells in March, where she reached the fourth round. Raducanu's last appearance came at the Stuttgart Open in April.
A criticism of Raducanu over the last two years has been the number of coaches she has had. The Briton began her career working with Nigel Sears - Andy Murray's father-in-law - but moved on after her 2021 fourth-round exit at Wimbledon.
Andrew Richardson was Raducanu's next coach and worked with her for her remarkable victory at Flushing Meadows in September 2021, but was no longer in place by the end of that year.
German coach Torben Beltz was appointed in November 2021 but left in April 2022, before Russian coach Dmitry Tursunov took over in July 2022, warning of a number of "red flags", and was gone in September 2022.
In December 2022, Raducanu began working with Sebastian Sachs - who had guided Belinda Bencic to an Olympic gold medal in 2021 - as her new coach on a trial basis but the arrangement came to an end in June 2023.
"The fact they're still talking about me even though I'm not at these events is just a compliment," said Raducanu regarding her critics.
"Someone told me, 'worry when they're not talking about you'. "Wimbledon is the dream and always has been growing up. It's still the ultimate dream to win Wimbledon."
