Emma Raducanu practiced for the first time at Wimbledon since Monday, but her lower leg was strapped and she paused the session to receive treatment.
The British No 1 is managing an issue which was exacerbated during her run to the final at Queen’s Club at the start of June.
She has not played since, deciding against playing Eastbourne and Nottingham, and her name had not appeared on the Wimbledon practice schedule since Monday.
That does not rule out the fact that she may have practiced elsewhere but she was spotted wearing a protective boot on her right foot when leaving the All England Club on Wednesday evening.
She was back out on court on Saturday, however, with coach Andrew Richardson, hitting partner Alexis Canter, friend and former coach Jane O’Donoghue and physio Emma Stewart.
There was certainly nothing wrong with Raducanu’s ball-striking as she pulverised a few forehands, but she was not moving completely freely and seemed to not be bending as low down to the ball as usual.
Emma Raducanu was seen with her lower leg strapped up during practice on Saturday
Around half way through the practice she sat down on the court and received some treatment from Stewart.
The 23-year-old had a superb start to her grass court season when she reached the final of the HSBC Championships at Queen’s Club, losing to Donna Vekic.
She did not look at her best physically during that 6-0, 7-6 defeat and said afterwards: ‘I have just been dealing with a few niggles over the past few weeks.’
Raducanu was down to play Nottingham last week but withdrew, then declined the option of taking a wildcard into this week’s Eastbourne Open.
Her season has been severely disrupted, by a viral illness mainly, more than by injury, and she played only 16 matches this year before that run at Queen’s.
But a series of sparkling performances there – and her rehiring of Richardson, the coach who guided her to the US Open title in 2021 – raised expectations ahead of Wimbledon, where she is seeded ahead of Friday’s draw.
