MELBOURNE, Australia – Britain’s Emma Raducanu, victorious at the last United States Open, has given up participating in the WTA Melbourne tournament (January 3-9), scheduled before the Australian Open, in order to fully recover from the coronavirus.
“The timing to compete in Melbourne this week is too tight for me,” admitted Raducanu, 19, who has just emerged from isolation, in a statement.
Tested positive last December in the United Arab Emirates, Raducanu had to give up the exhibition tournament in Abu Dhabi. She should have resumed competition from Tuesday in Australia, alongside ex-world no.1 Naomi Osaka and Simona Halep.
The Briton still hopes to resume “later in the month”, as the Australian Open kicks off on January 17th.
Finalist at Roland Garros in 2021, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova will also miss Melbourne after testing positive for COVID-19 earlier this week. His package leaves doubt about his participation in the Australian Open.
