Emma Raducanu: Tournament director Nicolas Lamperin says courts fit to play after ankle injury ahead of Australian Open
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Updated 06/01/2023 at 21:00 GMT
Emma Raducanu saw her Australian Open plans suffer a setback as she was forced to retire from her second-round match at the ASB Classic in Auckland with an ankle injury. Raducanu was critical of the indoor court the match was played on, but tournament director Nicolas Lamperin has said they were safe and that the injury "could have happened on an outdoor court".
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The tournament director of the ASB Classic in Auckland has hit back at Emma Raducanu’s suggestion that “slippery” indoor courts led to her suffering an ankle injury.
Raducanu’s Australian Open participation was thrown into doubt after she was forced to retire from her second-round match against Viktoria Kuzmoza.
Raducanu appeared to roll her ankle and was in tears as she left the court.
The match was moved indoors due to bad weather in Auckland and Raducanu said the injury was “difficult to take” but it was “not a surprise that this happened to someone”.
Tournament director Nicolas Lamperin has said the indoor courts were safe to play on.
“When we take the decision to move from outdoors to indoors, this is not a decision we take lightly,” he told New Zealand website Stuff.
“This is not a decision that’s on me ultimately, but it’s a decision we take with the tournament referee and the WTA supervisor.
“The courts have been checked, the courts are fit to play. We’ve had a number of matches on these courts and we haven’t had any injuries apart from yesterday and the courts had been redone at the start of the year (2022), there is a lot of work that’s been done.
“So as far as we’re concerned, the courts are in playing condition.”
Seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams also saw her match moved indoors and said it was “completely different” to playing outside.
Lamperin said the surface is the same and Raducanu’s injury “could have happened on an outdoor court”.
“It is still GreenSet," Lamperin said. "The courts have been laid out by the same company.
“We are obviously very sorry about Emma’s injury. Every player works really hard in the off season and that’s not what you expect when you play a tournament in week one.
“However, injuries happen all the time, it could have happened on an outdoor court. We feel for the situation, but we also say that these courts are fit to play.”
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