Emma Raducanu offers six-word response to Judy Murray’s ‘sarcastic’ social media post after decision to pull out of mixed doubles and end Andy Murray’s Wimbledon career

Emma Raducanu has sought to bring an end to the drama surrounding herself, Andy Murray and his mother Judy, after her withdrawal from the mixed doubles last week.  Raducanu played it safe after waking up with soreness in her wrist, pulling out of her commitment to playing with Murray as she focused on her own singles push.

Yet the 21-year-old’s tournament ended on Sunday in a 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 loss to New Zealand qualifier Lulu Sun, a fourth-round defeat in which she was seen clutching both her ankle and back with one medical timeout called after a nasty slip in the deciding set on Centre Court.

Raducanu had faced some criticism over the weekend and initially appeared to draw the ire of Judy Murray, who later claimed she was being sarcastic when she sent social media into a spin on Saturday by describing her withdrawal as ‘astonishing’.

The former US Open champion was questioned about Murray’s post after her defeat to Sun and insisted that she had not even seen Murray’s statements, which had gone viral online.  ‘I haven’t seen her reaction. So I don’t know.’ She said. When told that Murray had been sarcastic in her message, she added: ‘What was she sarcastic about?

Informed again of the make-up of the posts, Raducanu refused to take shots at the legendary tennis coach and replied: ‘I’m sure she didn’t mean it.’

Raducanu also said that she did not regret her decision to pull out of the mixed doubles match, which could have given her only a few hours to recover before taking on Sun in the women’s singles.  ‘I have to prioritise myself and my singles and my body and I think it was the right decision, she said.   ‘I stand by my decision. Of course I didn’t want to take his last match away from him but at the end of the day, a lot of the players in similar situations would have done a similar thing.’

On how Murray took the news, Raducanu said: ‘(He was) obviously disappointed because it was his last match. Hopefully he’ll play in the Olympics and have another farewell there.   ‘With every decision, people are entitled to their opinions. Of course there was a cloud around the decision, but I don’t think I would have done it any other way.’   On Sunday morning, Judy Murray appeared to row back on her criticism of Raducanu and her team and instead directed her ire at Wimbledon’s organisers.

The reality of the situation is that with rain causing havoc in the opening week of the tournament, the All England Club found themselves needing to prioritise the scheduling of singles matches.   There is pressure to play singles matches before doubles, and one of Murray-Raducanu’s scheduled opponents, Marcelo Arevalo, was finishing his men’s doubles match on Saturday morning, so they could hardly ask him to go back-to-back.

Another factor that complicated this particular mixed doubles match was that given the huge interest in it organisers were eager to put it on a show court, limiting the available slots.  Raducanu’s withdrawal came as desperately disappointing news to Andy Murray, as well as fans who queued for hours early morning in the hope of landing a No 1 Court ticket to see them.