EMMA RADUCANU required medical attention during her French Open first round match against Wang Xinyu after appearing to fall unwell.
The 22-year-old was forced into a timeout in the opening set while leading six games to five at Roland Garros.
After sitting down, she was handed a bag of ice while having her temperature and blood pressure taken.
The tennis star then rubbed some of the ice around her eyes.
After drinking a bottle of water and eating some fruit, Raducanu was able to continue playing.
She went on to win the set 7-5 against Wang.
But the Brit lost the second 6-4, taking the match to a decider.
Raducanu approached the match with a back issue, although her medical timeout did not appear to be related.
Prior to the French Open, she explained: “It is not feeling 100 per cent. I had a spasm in Strasbourg and just been trying to manage it as best I can doing treatment.
“I’ve been on the practice court last night and this morning. Yeah, it felt okay, but obviously it’s different playing a match. I’m trying to do everything to get up to speed as fast as possible.
“It is similar to the problem I had in Australia, I would say the one before Australia was worse.
“I feel like this one I kind of caught before it fully locked up. So I think the treatment is a lot of it with the physios, a lot of it with heat.
“At the start of the year I was so scared of needles. It was my biggest phobia. That was the only way I was going to be able to play Australia.
“Since then, I’ve been kind of dipping my toes into it because I know it helps even though I’m really scared of them. That’s how I’ve kind of been trying to manage it.”
Read the full article here
