Raducanu gets response from ASB Classic after blaming court for injury

Emma Raducanu has received a response from the tournament director of the ASB Classic after slamming the court conditions after rolling her ankle during her second round match against Viktoria Kuzmova and retiring in tears. Nicolas Lamperin hit back at the British No 1’s claims that the surface wasn’t up to scratch after her match was moved indoors to avoid the rain.

Raducanu’s run at the ASB Classic was cut short on Thursday when the 20-year-old turned her ankle towards the end of the second set of her match against Kuzmova. After winning the opener 6-0 she dropped the second set 5-7 and was forced to retire in tears after sustaining the new injury, leaving her Australian Open hopes hanging in the balance.

The world No 78 got candid following the incident as she admitted she wasn’t surprised that she got injured because of the court conditions, as the round-of-16 clash had been postponed and moved to the site’s indoor courts due to rain. But she has now received a response from the tournament director, who fired back against the Brit’s claims.

“We are obviously very sorry about Emma’s injury,” Lamperin told 1news. “As every player they work really hard in the off-season, that’s not what you expect when you play a tournament in week one.” While Lamperin was apologetic, he hit back at the idea that the courts weren’t suitable for play, adding: “The courts have been checked and we’ve had a number of matches on the indoor courts.

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“We haven’t had an injury apart from yesterday. As far as the tournament is concerned, with the support of the referee and the supervisor, we are able to play and use this court. We always start with a schedule for outdoor courts and then when we get closer to the time, if we realise that the conditions are not going to be suitable we need to move indoors but that always takes time.

“We need to warn the players, the players need to eat, they need to warm up again. There’s always a little bit of delay when we move from outdoor to indoor.” Lamperin added: “I want to make sure she’s okay, this is my number one priority.

“It’s 10 days ahead of the Australian Open. She’s coming from a season with a lot of injuries so of course this is something which creates frustration. We will have a discussion whether it’s with her or her management for sure and we’ll take it from there.”

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Raducanu had said on Thursday: “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. But we’ll assess over the next few days and see what the next steps are. 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.”