Emma Raducanu’s back spasms are becoming a problem.
The first tweak in December affected preparations for the Australian Open, another arrived the week before Roland Garros, and here at Queen’s Club she left the court for treatment en route to a 6-2, 6-4 defeat by No1 seed Qinwen Zheng.
The 22-year-old revealed at the start of the HSBC Championships that she had suffered another spasm, saying expectations were ‘pretty low’ for the event as a result.
In that context a run to the last eight looks like a decent week’s work, and no shame in losing to world No5 and Olympic champion Zheng, albeit on her weakest surface.
The worry is these back issues will bleed into the rest of the grass court season, including Wimbledon.
Raducanu sits at 36th in the live rankings and, with another week of competition available before the seedings cut off for Wimbledon, is a few wins away from hitting that magic No32 and ensuring she would avoid a seed for the first two rounds at the All England Club.
Emma Raducanu was knocked out of Queen’s after suffering a straight set defeat on Friday
The British star needed to leave the court for treatment after suffering a back problem
She revealed at the start of the Championships that she had suffered another back spasm
She is due to play in Berlin next week – another WTA 500-level event with juicy ranking points on offer – but will her back allow her to compete at her best?
Before the spectre of the back appeared the most noteworthy incident in the match was a change of footwear.
At 2-3 and 15-40, Raducanu was facing two break points. Zheng slipped on the grass and marched straight to her chair to change her shoes. Surely umpire Adel Nour should have ordered her to wait until the next changeover or at least the end of the game, rather than leaving Raducanu, still facing break point, to stew?
The Queen’s crowd, not exactly a baying mob, laughed in derision as she settled down to change. ‘Miss Zheng has an issue with her shoes,’ said umpire Nour.
‘Yeah right,’ roared a home counties voice from the crowd. This was not a quick change either, there were insoles and a thorough loosening and tightening of every rung of the laces. The crowd slow handclapped as Zheng took her sweet time.
When we resumed, Raducanu won a long rally and she – and the Queen’s crowd – gave an elevated celebration, but the game was lost eventually.
The re-shod Zheng served her way back from 15-40 in the next game and closed out the set, prompting Raducanu to call for the trainer. She went through various back-stretching exercises before leaving the court for further treatment.
Zheng played a careless opening game of the second set, conceding the break with a double fault. After the first point of Zheng’s next service game she trotted to her chair once more. ‘Not again,’ said a voice from the crowd, but this time it was just a change of racket.
Raducanu is due to play in Berlin next week but her back issues are causing concern
No1 seed Qinwen Zheng booked a place in the semi-finals after getting the better of Raducanu
Raducanu was playing with more patience now, working the rallies rather than trying to keep pace with Zheng’s power hitting. She broke again as the wind picked up and serving became more difficult.
That sliced both ways though and Zheng edged her way back into command.
This was a missed opportunity for Raducanu to record a notable win. Zheng is a class player but not, as yet, a grass player. She had three wins and eight defeats on the surface coming into this event, losing in the first round of Wimbledon last year.
Her serve is among the more potent in the game but she lacks some of the finer furnishings of a grass court game. She is liable to overhit, especially off low balls, her backswing is longer than ideal and she is far less comfortable around the net than Raducanu.
From that 3-0, double break lead she really should have forced a deciding set. But the last few games looked awfully painful; the final Zheng break at 4-5 awfully inevitable. Less than ideal with just over a fortnight to go until Wimbledon.
