Premium

Doesn’t make sense’: Emma Raducanu questions Australian Open organiser’s wisdom for match timings

Raducanu, after the high of winning the 2021 US Open, has struggled to reach those same levels. But in 2025, she slowly started to climb up the ranks and made a comeback into the Top 30.

2 min readUpdated: Jan 17, 2026 06:23 PM IST

Emma Raducanu of Britain reacts during her third round match against Iga Swiatek of Poland at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake, File)

Emma Raducanu has questioned her match timings for the first round of the Australian Open. The British pro tennis player, who has one Grand Slam to her name, was part of a warm-up event in Hobart and had reached the quarter-finals. Her flight then got delayed and she finally reached Melbourne on Saturday.

Now Raducanu is set to play her 1st round against Thai player Mananchaya Sawangkaew on Sunday. With less than ideal time to get completely match-fit, Raducanu has questioned the merits of the Australian Open scheduling.

“You would love to have more time in the environment, more time practising, but I guess I was pretty much handed the schedule to try and turn it around.

“I have to make the most out of what is in front of me. It’s easy to complain about it, but it’s not going to help,” she said to reporters.

Also Read | Can Iga Swiatek create history at Australian Open by becoming the 11th woman to complete the Grand Slam?

Raducanu, after the high of winning the 2021 US Open, has struggled to reach those same levels. But in 2025, she slowly started to climb up the ranks and made a comeback into the Top 30. She did so by playing more matches in the year than she had previously done so in any other season. She was set to work with Rafael Nadal’s former coach Francisco Roig, but that was hampered by a foot injury.

The World No 29 will also have to contend with a men’s match between Alexander Bublik and Jenson Brooksby before her that could go into five-sets, and further hamper her first round tie. The men’s match is set to begin at 7 PM local time, thus likely pushing RadUcanu to a midnight start which she wasn’t a fan of.

“I think it’s very difficult to be scheduling women’s matches after a potential five-set match. To me, it doesn’t really make as much sense,” said Raducanu.