Having pulled out of her mixed doubles match with Andy Murray, the former US Open champion has scored a public relations own goal

July 6, 2024 7:17 pm(Updated 10:02 pm)

WIMBLEDON — Emma Raducanu had pulled off a near-flawless summer, winning smiles and matches on the grass, until a public relations own goal that meant she inadvertently retired Andy Murray.

Having been down to play mixed doubles with Murray in what would have been his last professional tennis match at Wimbledon, she pulled out just a few hours before she was due to take the court. By rule, he could not replace her with another partner. His Wimbledon career was over.

“Astonished,” was his mother Judy Murray’s reaction on social media, before posting a quote from Serena Williams about how “grateful” she had been to playing mixed with Andy back in 2019. They were two thinly veiled jibes that reflected how many with less skin in the game were also feeling, not least those who had impulsively raided the resale sites for No 1 Court tickets on Friday night hoping to witness Murray one last time in a unique combination.

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I shared Judy’s astonishment – albeit without the implication – not least because the announcement was so out of keeping with the rest of Raducanu’s return to the game this summer.

The 21-year-old has been in good spirits since her return from a self-imposed seven-week break from competition. In April, she had told media in Madrid that she was “mentally and emotionally exhausted” and headed back the UK, controversially skipping the French Open to preserve her fitness.

She returned to play in Nottingham and then turned up in Eastbourne, making sure everyone knew how much she has fallen back in love with tennis ahead of Wimbledon, the tournament she had missed in plaster last year.

Talk is cheap though and tennis is a results business. She has delivered them too, playing some of the best matches since she burst onto the scene in 2021 in progressing to the fourth round. With Euro 2024 also reaching an enticing climax, Raducanu looked ready to ride the crest of a wave of national excitement.

That heady mood reached fever pitch when Raducanu revealed she would play mixed doubles with Murray, an inter-generational team that would extend Murray’s Wimbledon career by two days and provide a mouth-watering epilogue to his time at SW19.

“If she plays it,” one cynic in the locker room told me. They were scoffed at. Surely, she would not pull out. Surely not after, as recently as Friday night, gushing that it was “an amazing opportunity to be able to play with him”.

“It’s something that I’m going to cherish,” she added, repeating sentiments she had expressed at every opportunity over the previous 48 hours.

And then she did pull out. On Saturday morning, she had grinned her way to a court at Aorangi Park, the practice grounds where Wimbledon’s gladiators sharpen their weapons away from the public who pay to see them.

But they cannot escape the camera lenses of the world though, and when Raducanu arrives for a hit, photographers and videographers are drawn like moths to a flame. They captured the shot that explained why Raducanu was about to pull out of the mixed doubles, telltale strapping on her right wrist that her purple Nike sweatband could not adequately conceal.

A few hours later, the stiffness in that wrist forced her into withdrawal. Cue social media fury, led by Judy Murray.

It is true, Raducanu owes Murray nothing in terms of a send-off. She is still in the serious stuff, the singles, and has a non-zero chance of claiming the title, while Murray by his own admission is just trying to get “that buzz” one more time.

But this entry was a huge unforced error. Raducanu says she took just 10 seconds to agree to Murray’s suggestion of teaming up, something he had first pitched to her coach Nick Cavaday. There would have been a discussion, as there always is between scratch doubles pairs, about what to do if either player was still in the singles tournament. Judging by the reaction from the Murray camp, this was not the agreement.

It’s easy to forget that 14 months ago Raducanu only had one usable limb, having had surgery on both wrists and her right ankle. Basic everyday tasks were a challenge, let alone professional tennis. And even before that, practice had been agony due to the carpal bosses, bone spurs on which tendons would catch, on both of her wrists. She was forced to choose between always feeling some pain in her wrists, or undergoing surgery that would eventually rule her out for eight months.

“More than understandable Emma Raducanu has pulled out of the mixed doubles. No need to take a risk with the wrist,” former British No 1 Greg Rusedski said.

With everything Raducanu has been through, risk is not something she wants to flirt with.

But then, why sign up at all? The mind boggles.