Emma Raducanu in Wimbledon injury scare after missing training

Emma Raducanu’s Wimbledon preparations appear to have hit a snag after she failed to show up for her scheduled practice session on Thursday lunchtime, following reports the previous evening that she had been wearing an orthopaedic boot.

Raducanu was pictured practising at the All England Club on Monday but had not booked a court on site on either Tuesday or Wednesday.

It is understood that she is managing a niggle, aggravated by her run to the final at Queen’s Club. Nevertheless, a fitness issue before the biggest tournament of the year and her no-show for a noon slot on Thursday only adds to the sense of concern.

If Raducanu is indeed dealing with a lower-leg injury – which, given the orthopaedic boot reported by Clay magazine, would seem most likely to be some kind of turned ankle – then it will only add to her reputation for fragility.

Seeded at No 30 for Wimbledon, Raducanu had apparently gained some momentum with her run to the final of Queen’s 11 days ago. She is back working with Andrew Richardson, the coach who oversaw her triumphant run to the US Open title five years ago, and who has now guided her to three finals in just five tournaments working together.

Again, though, it appears that Raducanu’s propensity for picking up niggles is restricting her progress. We already saw something similar happen this season when she reached the final of Cluj-Napoca in early February, only to contract a virus which wiped out almost the entirety of her clay-court season.

Although Raducanu wore strapping on her right thigh during certain parts of her Queen’s run, and told interviewers that “I have just been dealing with a few niggles over the past few weeks”, it seemed as though the two weeks between that tournament and Wimbledon should give her the necessary time to recover.

This is an important stage of the season for Raducanu, whose former coach Mark Petchey told Sky Sports on Thursday that grass is comfortably her best surface. In the same interview, Petchey criticised the people around Raducanu for the way they have guided – or perhaps misguided – her career.

“Everyone knows that things could have been handled differently – but not by her,” Petchey said. “She was 18 [when she won the US Open]. That’s not on her, but there are a lot of adults in the room that clearly will need to look at themselves.

“The lucky thing for her is she won it so young, she had this period to figure stuff out, and she’s now just 23 and has still got a lot of runway ahead in tennis if she decides to use it. Especially on the grass, because there’s no question in my mind this is her best surface.”

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