Emma Raducanu remains hopeful that she will be ready to compete at the Australian Open as she attempts to recover from the ankle injury she suffered last week in time for the first major of the year, which begins on Monday 16 January.
In a video interview with Tennis Australia, Raducanu spoke about her prospects for the first time since arriving in Melbourne. “I’m just taking a day at a time, honestly, and just trying to, every single day, as best as possible to see and make progress,” she said. “And we’ll see hopefully by Monday, I’ll be OK and ready. But we’re just taking it a day at a time and not trying to expect too much at this point.”
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On Monday afternoon, Raducanu completed a tentative practice at Melbourne Park with her trial coach, Sebastian Sachs, and her physio, Will Herbert, also present. Raducanu maintains that the rolled ankle she sustained in her second round match against Viktoria Kuzmova in Auckland, her second match of the year, was a slice of bad luck that she could not avoid.
“It was really unfortunate last week, because I was feeling great about my season. I was feeling really good with the preparation I did physically,” she said. “And I just had an accident on the court, which I don’t know what I could have done to really prevent that.”
Meanwhile, Jack Draper reached the second round in Adelaide with a comprehensive 6-4, 6-2 win over Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego, while the fifth seed Dan Evans fell 7-5, 7-5 to MacKenzie McDonald in the first round.
Cameron Norrie will look to continue his brilliant start to the season in Auckland as the men’s tournament begins. In the Australian Open qualifiers, Heather Watson was defeated 7-6 (4), 6-3 by Aliona Bolsova Zadoinov.
