Emma Raducanu Opens Up on ‘Emotionally Exhausting’ Experience Following Brutal Madrid Open Defeat

Emma Raducanu admitted she was “mentally and emotionally exhausted” following her first-round exit at the Madrid Open. After starting the clay season strong, the British No. 6 suffered a 6-2 6-2 defeat to qualifier Maria Lourdes Carle on Wednesday. And she explained that her brutal schedule and the absence of her coach took a toll.

Raducanu suffered her most one-sided loss of the year as she managed to win just four games against Carle, who secured her first WTA 1000 main draw victory. The 21-year-old appeared exhausted on the court and made too many mistakes, failing to capitalize on break point opportunities as the world No. 82 ran away with it.

After the match, the 2021 US Open winner admitted that fatigue played a part after her positive weeks at the Billie Jean King Cup and the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart. “I would say the last few weeks have been a lot,” Raducanu said on Wednesday. “Starting from Billie Jean King Cup, I haven’t stopped. It’s just been back-to-back and I was very happy being able to help carry the team in BJK Cup and then straight to Stuttgart with no rest and then straight here and trying to adapt to the conditions which are very different because it’s outdoors and I was playing indoors for the last month. Many factors that have made it very difficult to fully compete today but overall I’ve been playing pretty well.”

Raducanu’s coach Nick Cavaday was noticeably absent from her box in Madrid, with the LTA’s Iain Bates stepping in to advise her. And the world No. 221 missed having her trusted mentor around while he was busy with prior commitments. She continued: “Yeah I did, I definitely missed him not being here so that kind of sucked. “But I had Iain here which was great that he was able to kind of drop everything and come out last minute. I mean it’s not easy but the circumstances don’t always align to how you want them to so yeah, I just didn’t really deal with everything too great today.”

Raducanu is now hoping to enjoy some well-earned rest after a red-hot start to the clay swing. She won four matches in a row for the first time since her 2021 US Open title triumph, spanning the BJK Cup and Stuttgart. “I think I’m going to just take a few days off and rest a little bit because I’ve been going non-stop for the last month,” she explained. “Because before Billie Jean King Cup I had two weeks of really intense training and then went straight there, straight to Stuttgart, straight here. So I think I’m going to just recharge a little bit. I think from the performance today it was very clear that mentally and emotionally I was exhausted and yeah, that’s just all.”

While Raducanu managed to keep going in Stuttgart, she ran out of gas in Madrid. She added: “I was trying to push through. I was pushing through Stuttgart and was just unable to push through today. So it’s a shame that I was feeling so good on the court and today happened but I guess this sport is just pretty brutal.” Her Argentinian opponent also benefitted from having more experience on the clay and came in off the back of winning a WTA 125 event last week. “She’s a very experienced clay-courter and I think just has a lot more knowledge and experience on this surface. So I mean credit to her, she played a great match and I definitely didn’t so that’s how it is,” Raducanu said.