Emma Raducanu is knocked OUT of Queen's after quarter-final defeat by Qinwen Zheng - and suffers further back issues ahead of Wimbledon

It would not be Wimbledon season without a fitness doubt looming over a British player, and while we are not in the territory of Andy Murray’s spinal cyst from last year, Emma Raducanu’s back is becoming a problem.

The 22-year-old left the court for treatment during a 6-2, 6-4 defeat to No1 seed Qinwen Zheng in the Queen’s Club quarter-finals. It is not a new issue: a spasm in December affected preparations for the Australian Open, another arrived in Strasbourg the week before Roland Garros. With Wimbledon only 17 days away, Raducanu is still managing pain in that area.

‘I have been struggling with my back since Strasbourg on and off,’ said Raducanu. ‘I have managed it pretty well over the last few weeks but as the week goes on - I have played five matches now, even if two were doubles - it just tests it out.

‘They took me off court and taped it to give me some extra stability and some painkillers. I have had back issues before, I think it's just a vulnerability of mine. I need to take good care of it.

‘I'm not overly concerned it's something serious but it's very annoying and needs proper and careful management.’

Raducanu is in an awkward position when it comes to setting her schedule. She sits at 36th in the live rankings and, with another week of competition before the seedings cut-off for Wimbledon, is a few wins away from hitting that magic No32 and ensuring she would avoid a seed in the first two rounds at the All England Club.

Emma Raducanu was knocked out of Queen's after suffering a straight set defeat on Friday

The British star needed to leave the court for treatment after suffering a back problem

She revealed at the start of the Championships that she had suffered another back spasm

She is due to play in Berlin next week - another WTA 500-level event with juicy ranking points on offer - but will her back be up to it? ‘I don't know,’ she said. ‘I need to see how it settles and recovers over the next few hours.’

The newly-minted British No1 insisted she will not go chasing the seeding at the expense of her body.

‘Being seeded obviously helps but my goals have shifted from being seeded to improving my game, and when I play those top players, making it closer and feeling more competitive,’ she said. ‘Rather than just feeling, Ok, I maybe get to the third round of a Slam but then lose comfortably to one of the top players.’

Before the spectre of the back appeared the most noteworthy incident in the match was a change of footwear.

At 2-3 and 15-40, with Raducanu facing two break points, Zheng slipped on the grass and marched straight to her chair to change shoes. Unless the things were falling apart, umpire Adel Nour should have ordered her to wait until the next changeover, or at least the end of the game, rather than leaving Raducanu, still facing break point, to stew.

‘I have been using these shoes for a long time,’ explained Zheng, who was lightly jeered by the Queen’s crowd as she re-shod. ‘I slipped already three times after two games.

‘I had to change shoes or I'm going to break my leg. I didn't know the crowd would be so unhappy.’

Zheng went on to change rackets mid-game, then later replaced the dampener - the squishy plastic thing which reduces vibrations - on her strings. Without teeing off on her opponent, Raducanu made it clear she was less than impressed.

‘I'm not sure what I can do in those moments,’ she said. ‘The fact it happened three times on my serve, I feel like maybe something could have been done, but I'm not going to get into it.’

Raducanu is due to play in Berlin next week but her back issues are causing concern

No1 seed Qinwen Zheng booked a place in the semi-finals after getting the better of Raducanu

Raducanu ought to have forced a deciding set, taking a 3-0, double-break lead in the second set as the wind picked up and made serving more difficult. But that sliced both ways and Zheng edged her way back into command. As easy as it would be to put this defeat down to the back issues, this was another match in which Raducanu looked underpowered against a top opponent.

It was not as dramatic as the 6-1, 6-2 reverse against Iga Swiatek in the French Open but until Raducanu can find a way of competing with the best ball-strikers, her ceiling can only go so high.

Zheng, at 22, is a relative novice on the grass, with three wins and eight defeats on the surface coming into this event. Raducanu is a far more natural mover on the lawns but Zheng simply hits the ball much harder and sometimes tennis is as simple as that.

Asked to assess how close she feels to the top players, Raducanu said: ‘Returning is one of my big strengths and I think Qinwen served really well, she kind of took away one of my bigger strengths. I think I have a lot of work to do, to be honest.’

Zheng will play American Amanda Anisimova in Saturday’s semi-finals, with Madison Keys taking on 37-year-old German Tatjana Maria. In the first women's event at Queen's for over 50 years, a strong field should produce a strong final weekend - albeit one without the British interest for which organisers will have prayed.

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