Emma Raducanu said that she stood by her decision to pull out of her scheduled mixed doubles match with Andy Murray, even though the controversy cast what she called “a cloud” over her weekend at Wimbledon.
Raducanu had originally expressed great enthusiasm for the collaboration with Murray after he invited her to play with him in a late-night text message on Tuesday.
But on Saturday afternoon, Raducanu’s management team announced that she was withdrawing from the mixed doubles draw on account of stiffness in the right wrist. It seemed likely that she was also concerned about the inconvenient scheduling of the doubles at the end of a lengthy schedule on No1 Court, which could have kept her at the All England Club until after 10pm.
As things turned out, Raducanu still lost her fourth-round match to world No 123 Lulu Sun on Sunday. But that did not lead to any retrospective change of heart.
“I still stand by making the right call,” Raducanu told reporters after her defeat. “It was a very difficult decision. Of course, I didn’t want to take his last match away from him [Murray]. But at the end of the day I think a lot of the players in a similar situation would have done the same thing.”
Asked how Murray had reacted, Raducanu replied: “[He was] obviously disappointed because it’s his last match. But, yeah, what a champion. I think that hopefully he’ll play in the Olympics and have another farewell there.”
She did admit that “There was a bit of a cloud around the decision [to pull out of the mixed doubles].” But then she added: “I don’t think I would have done it any other way. I think in this sport especially, as an individual, you have to make your own calls and prioritise yourself. Especially with my history, I just had to put myself first.
“Going into the tournament, I wasn’t expecting to make fourth round. So for me it was a no-brainer [to accept]. I would have loved to have played. He didn’t ask me, ‘If you’re still in the singles, are you going to play?’ That was never a question to be answered.”
With respect to the controversial verdict that Judy Murray had posted on social media, calling the withdrawal “astonishing”, Raducanu said she had not been aware of the post. When it was explained to her, she replied: “I’m sure she didn’t mean it.”
Asked to elaborate on the reason behind her withdrawal, Raducanu explained: “I just woke up yesterday with a bit of stiff wrist. With the balls being quite heavy on the grass, it’s just something that I have to manage. I’ve been playing on the grass for quite a few weeks now. I think I just had to prioritise my singles.”
Earlier on Sunday, Judy Murray had said that the post was not meant to be taken seriously. She had locked access to her posts on X soon after making her statement, which appeared as a reply at the bottom of a post by experienced tennis broadcaster Marcus Buckland. The response to her message had not been a warm one.
But on Sunday morning she reactivated her profile and tweeted: “Not sure anyone understands sarcasm these days. Pretty sure the scheduling (fourth match on Court 1 with singles the following day) will have played a major part in any decision making.”
This time, she had switched off replies so that there was no more blowback.
