Emma Raducanu called out the “incredibly slick” indoor courts in Auckland as she admitted that it was mentally devastating to kick off her season with an injury. Due to the persistent rain in Auckland, the tournament organizers moved Raducanu’s round-of-16 match to indoors.
Late in the second set of her match against Viktoria Kuzmova, Raducanu badly rolled her ankle and left the court in tears after being forced to retire. “It’s difficult to take. I’ve put a lot of physical work in the last few months and I’ve been feeling good and optimistic.
So to be stopped by a freak injury, rolling an ankle is pretty disappointing, in the first week as well. I thought I was playing some pretty decent tennis. The courts are incredibly slick, like very slippery, so to be honest it’s not a surprise that this happened to someone.
It’s out of my control and after a very long day of waiting around,” Raducanu said, per Sportskeeda.
Raducanu to get scans on her ankle
With the Australian Open just around the corner, Raducanu is praying that her ankle injury is not that serious.
Anyway, it is never great to contract an injury of any sort just before a Grand Slam tournament. “We’ll assess over the next few days and make a plan. But Auckland overall, it rained a lot this week, so I didn’t get to see much and I thought maybe certain aspects could have been organized better, but overall I had pleasant support when playing outdoors and the crowd made me feel really welcome and at home,” Raducanu added.
Meanwhile, Raducanu clinched her first win of the season after recovering from a set and a break down to beat Linda Fruhvirtova 4-6 6-4 6-2. In the Auckland round-of-16, Raducanu won the first set against Kuzmova with a 6-0 score. Raducanu then sustained an ankle injury late in the second set and retired after Kuzmova won the set with a 7-5 score.
