Emma Raducanu was defeated by Montenegro’s Danka Kovinic in the secon round of the Australian Open. The 19-year-old, who was battling hand blisters during the game, said that she was proud of they wat she fought during 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 match in Melbourne. 

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“There were some people in my team that maybe didn’t want me to play. But I wanted to go out there and fight through it, see how far I could get,” Raducanu said in her post-match press conference. 

With her dominant right hand affected with blisters, Raducanu struggled to hit forehand shots consistently in the first set. Unseeded Kovinic took the lead. 

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In the second set, Raducanu received  treatment and emerged victorious. However, she couldn’t keep at it in the final one. 

Hr injury forced her to keep slicing her forehand, which she says unlocked a new part of her game. 

“I did discover elements of my game I didn’t know I had before, and I can use that going forward. And also I just know that I’ve got that fight in me. Even if I have, like, one shot, I know that I can pull myself out of deep situations. Because I’m still young, I feel like I can learn a backhand, I can learn some tactics, but it’s quite hard to learn or teach someone that fight and grittiness to hang in there when things are pretty much all against you. So I’m quite proud of that,” Raducanu said. 

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The defending US Open champion had defeated Sloane Stephens in the first round.

“That thought when I was slicing forehands and really struggling, I was, like, ‘do I [retire]?’ But I didn’t want to – as I said, some people in my team didn’t want me to even go out there. So I fought so hard just to come out to Australia and play here, and I didn’t want to go out like that. So I just left it all out on the court after everything I went through.”