Emma Raducanu is fighting her fear of needles to get fit for the French Open. The former US Open champion admitted she is not “100%” after suffering a back spasm in her defeat in Strasbourg this week. And the British No.1 is undergoing acupuncture to be ready to face China’s world No.42 Wang Xinyu in the first round here.

“It's not feeling 100%,” Raducanu admitted. “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. Been doing some dry needling where they twitch the needle, like they move it.

“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. So 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.”

Raducanu’s needle phobia makes giving blood samples for anti-doping a challenge.

“Sometimes it feels like Pin the Donkey because at 6am you're not very hydrated and everything,” she said. “It's like you can't get any blood out, and they have however many attempts. That's a bit difficult, but I think we all have to go through it. It's not the most enjoyable thing, but it's just part of what we have to do. I was very scared the first few times, but you obviously don't have a choice. They penalize you if you don't do it pretty badly, so I kind of built up my tolerance that way.”

The world No.3 missed the French Open and the Olympics at Roland Garros last year - she is only making her second appearance in the claycourt Grand Slam - and she said the surface is not good for her back

“Yeah, actually, in 2024 and in 2022 when I played on the clay, I had back issues both times,” she recalled. “I think with the ball it's a lot higher bouncing, longer rallies, getting to some awkward positions because the bounces aren't necessarily even. So I think the trend over the last two seasons that I played on clay has been a back issue and again this time, but I guess that's something I need to manage. I think with the way my back is structured, I'm more prone to I guess picking things up especially on clay.”

Needles is not her only phobia. “I'm not great in the water, to be honest, with what's underneath,” she laughed. “Not even super deep. Whatever is under the sea. If you had seen me in the sea, I need goggles when I go swimming, but it's scary because I don't want to see it at the same time, what's under there. It's hard.”

Earlier, former world No.1 Naomi Osaka had posted on social media about her 5am anti-doing wake-up call - and then spoke about her needle experience.

“They're kind of scary,” said the four-time Major winner. “I don't have a great relationship with them, just because they always come and take blood and urine, which I don't know if that disgusts people to say, but whatever, and my veins are, like, very notoriously hard to find.

“One person once told me it was like a Japanese thing. I don't know if that's accurate. Yeah, so they come at 5:00 a.m. and stick me multiple times. Usually they can't find my veins, so they have three attempts to find it. Sometimes they can't find it. They're like: ‘Oops, sorry, let me try this arm, let me try this arm, let me try this arm’. I always have to tell them: ‘Hey, my playing arm is my right arm, I prefer the left, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah’.

“And today was kind of scary, because the last year I was here they also came at 5:00 a.m., and the lady couldn't find my veins at all. I had, like, huge bruises on my arms for a while. Thankfully it wasn't the same lady. No shade to her!”