After a slow but steady return to form in 2025, the new season was supposed to mark the next step forward for Emma Raducanu. Instead, she was forced to withdraw from her opener against Naomi Osaka at the United Cup and then suffered a loss to Greece’s Maria Sakkari. And when Raducanu arrived at the Hobart International, her bad luck continued.

On Tuesday night, Raducanu was leading Camila Osorio when play was suddenly halted by rain. The Brit had already taken the first set and was clinging to a 6-3, 2-4 lead when the match was suspended for the night.

Preparing for the year’s first Grand Slam, the top seed in Hobart International will return Wednesday afternoon looking to secure her first win of the season. But so far, it’s been a bumpy road for Raducanu.

After her loss at the United Cup last week, Emma Raducanu revealed that her preseason had been heavily disrupted by the foot injury she’d been dealing with since cutting her 2025 season short in October.

While she said she felt in a “pretty good place” entering the new year and earned a spot on Team GB, it quickly became clear that rebuilding her form wouldn’t be a straightforward process.

For context, the 23-year-old was forced into an unusual warm-up before her match against Sakkari, hitting on a practice court that was almost completely dark. The outdoor courts at Perth’s RAC Arena don’t have floodlights, leaving Raducanu and her team, Francisco Roig and Emma Stewart, to make do with the glow of their phone flashlights.

Australian commentator David Culbert captured the bizarre scene in real time. “This was just a moment ago out on the outside practice court here, sort of in the car park. And there’s no lights out there, so teammates with their phone lights to help proceedings. You can see there’s a road behind them, which helps,” he said.

Former player John Fitzgerald even tried to find humor in the moment, joking, “It’s all about approach; if you can hit the ball in the dark, imagine what you can do in here!”

But ultimately, Fitzgerald’s optimism didn’t hold. Emma Raducanu entered the match with a perfect 4-0 record against Maria Sakkari and had never lost a set to the world No. 51. This time, though, Sakkari flipped the script, battling back from an early deficit to clinch the win and send Greece into the United Cup quarterfinals.

With a full week of training behind her, Raducanu arrived in Hobart International hoping to build momentum. Still, at times, the 23-year-old struggled to put away an opponent ranked 60 places below her at No. 89. She did start brightly. While the opening set was close, Raducanu played her best tennis when it mattered most, dictating with her forehand and overpowering the smaller Osorio.

Osorio was clearly under the weather on Tuesday, with the match marked by her constant coughing. But the 24-year-old is a talented competitor, and she raised her level early in the second set. She began stepping inside the baseline, taking the ball earlier, and adding more pace to her forehand to turn the momentum.

Who awaits Emma Raducanu next?

According to the latest update, Emma Raducanu is set to face Magdalena Frech in the second round at Hobart if she can close out her suspended match against Camila Osorio on Wednesday.

A win over Osorio would set up a first-ever meeting between Raducanu and Frech, who is currently ranked world No. 57.

For those who don’t know, Frech made a strong start to her Hobart campaign on Tuesday, cruising past world No. 58 Elsa Jacquemot 6-4, 6-0 in the opening round.

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Born in Lodz, Poland, on December 15, 1997, Frech began playing tennis at the age of six. Ultimately, she reached a career-high ranking of world No. 22 in November 2024 after winning her first WTA title at the hard-court WTA 500 event in Guadalajara in September.

The 28-year-old was also runner-up at the Prague WTA 250 in July 2024, reached the fourth round of the 2024 Australian Open, and owns top-10 wins over Emma Navarro and Mirra Andreeva.