British number one Emma Raducanu is back in Eastbourne, as her Wimbledon preparations continue.
Raducanu, 22, returns to the Lexus Eastbourne Open, hoping to improve on her quarter-final defeat last year to champion Daria Kasatkina.
Devonshire Park was where Raducanu achieved her first win against a top-ten player – beating No. 2 seed Jessica Pegula.
Raducanu comes into the tournament in good form after reaching the Queen’s quarter-final – and she revealed that she is happy to be returning to the Sussex coast.
British number one Emma Raducanu is back in Eastbourne, as her Wimbledon preparations continue. (Photo by ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP via Getty Images)placeholder image
British number one Emma Raducanu is back in Eastbourne, as her Wimbledon preparations continue. (Photo by ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP via Getty Images)
The British number one said: “Yeah, I’m happy to be here. Eastbourne is nice. I love the centre court here. It’s a great atmosphere and a nice crowd.
“I did really well last year here, I got my first top ten win and that was big. But it is challenging with the wind, I must say.
“I’m just trying to get my head around that. Otherwise, it’s such a cute town.”
Eastbourne is one of the staples of the ATP tour, with great facilities and brilliant crowds cheering on the players.
One problem with it is the location, which brings in challenging conditions which the players have to deal with.
On the windy conditions, Raducanu said: “It’s very windy out here so it’s tough to feel good about your game, and I think it’s a challenge of accepting it as best as possible and trying to do the best you can in the conditions.
“Playing clean and ball-strike tennis isn’t necessarily going to work here and trying to find a way that’s going to make it difficult, variety; it’s a challenge.
“In theory, it sounds great [playing in the conditions] and then when you’re out there, it’s not so pleasant. It is good practice for me, though, because we don’t really get these conditions much.
“Sometimes in Indian Wells, it can be very windy. That’ a Masters [event] and you don’t want that to be your first time playing in those conditions. I hope I can gain some
more experience the more I play in these conditions.”
The conditions will not be the only thing the former US Open champions will have to deal with this week, with her struggling with a back problem.
She managed to get herself fit for this tournament, as she said: “It’s ok, I’m still managing it. I have good days and bad days with it.
“I trained a fair bit last week in London and it was good. I was getting a lot of treatment.”
Raducanu gets her Eastbourne campaign underway on Tuesday (June 24) against American Ann Li.
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