As physical issues have done for Emma Raducanu once again, words Tim Henman spoke to Daily Mail Sport in the build-up to the tournament look prophetic – as he insisted she must become more physically resilient.
Raducanu has been dealing with an issue in her lower leg for several weeks, and her run to the final of the HSBC Championships at Queen’s Club at the start of June exacerbated the problem.
The British No1 did her best to push through the pain and make the start line at Wimbledon but a scan on Sunday night revealed the injury had developed into a stress fracture.
Speaking when the issue was known but before her withdrawal, Henman told Daily Mail Sport: ‘Does Emma need to change anything in her tennis game? Absolutely not. Does she need to become physically more resilient? 100 per cent yes.
‘She played one week on grass and then she misses the next week, and then all of a sudden I hear she hasn’t been practising this week going into Wimbledon. So it’s far from ideal. And to me, that is physical resilience.’
Henman has always been a staunch supporter of Raducanu, going back to her 2021 US Open victory when he joined the title celebrations. His closeness to her camp at that time was partly because her coach Andrew Richardson is Henman’s childhood friend and was best man at his wedding.
Emma Raducanu pulled out of Wimbledon late on Sunday night after a weekend of practising with strapping on her right leg
Richardson was discarded after that Grand Slam victory, but this summer Raducanu has corrected what many feel was a mistake and brought him back to the fold.
The 52-year-old has a reputation for extremely high physical standards and, though that side is more the department of Raducanu’s fitness trainer Emma Stewart, Henman insisted his old friend will know what is required.
‘You can’t have a coach working separately from a physical trainer, working separately from a physio,’ he said. ‘You’re a team and you’ve got to communicate and coordinate, and so I’m sure Andrew is leading that.
‘He will be fully aware that, you look at the top players and they’re playing two, three, four weeks in a row and then they’ll have a break – and that’s something that Emma hasn’t been able to do really.’
Raducanu has played only 20 matches this season in 10 events. Her 2025 season was cut short by bone bruising on her right foot and then she missed much of this year with a viral illness.
In between all that she reached two finals – her first since the US Open win, in Cluj, Romania, and at Queen’s. The talent is clearly still there – it is the body which is the problem.
