Emma Raducanu will travel to Melbourne, but she is unsure whether she will be able to compete in the Australian Open due to a pending diagnosis of her ankle issue.
The announcement comes as tournament organizers in Auckland responded to her claims that the “slippery” indoor courts contributed to her injury, saying that their courts are “fit to play” on.
Raducanu, British No. 1, retired in tears from her second-round match against Viktoria Kuzmova at the ASB Classic on Thursday due to a suspected strain after seeming to roll her left ankle while changing direction.
Though it is too early to know how serious the injury is, Raducanu intends to travel to Melbourne in the hopes of recovering in time for the Open, which begins in only 10 days.
The accident occurred on Auckland’s indoor practice courts, when play was relocated inside owing to more than 24 hours of weather delays that disrupted the tournament schedule. Raducanu, a former US Open champion, expressed her disappointment with the conditions, describing them as “very slick.”
“Being halted by a freak accident, rolling an ankle, is quite disheartening, especially in the opening week [of the year],” Raducanu, 20, explained. “I believed I was playing fairly good tennis. The courts are really slippery, so it’s not surprising that this happened to someone.”
While sympathetic to Raducanu’s situation, event director Nicholas Lamperin affirmed that the courts were approved by the tournament referee and a WTA tournament supervisor and denied that they were to blame for her injury.
“We are certainly very sorry for Emma’s injury,” Lamperin stated on Friday. “Every player works extremely hard throughout the off-season, which is not what you expect while playing a tournament in week one. However, injuries occur on a regular basis, and it is possible that this occurred on an outside court. We are sorry about the issue, but we also believe these courts are fit for play.”
Raducanu spent two months working on her physical condition from October to December in order to avoid the minor problems that plagued her previous season. Even the strongest of athletes can be undone by rolling an ankle, and Raducanu’s start to 2023 has been extraordinarily unlucky, coming in only her second match of the year.
On Friday, she posted a video on Instagram showing her victory over Linda Fruhvirtova in the Auckland first round, captioned “two days ago” and “sport,” with an emoji fighting back tears.
Lamperin stated on Friday that he wanted to speak with Raducanu to check on her condition and clear the air. “First and foremost, I want to make sure she’s okay. “This is my number one priority,” he stated. “I understand your frustration. It’s 10 days before the Australian Open. She is coming off a season full of ailments, so this is understandably frustrating. We will have a talk, whether with her or her management, and we will go from there.”
He went on to say, “Every tournament across the world has had weather concerns. This year is our turn, and it will undoubtedly be difficult. It is not the experience we want to provide to our players and supporters, but we must cope with it. I do not believe it will have a long-term detrimental influence on the tournament. This is not new in tennis.”
