{"id":212188,"date":"2025-01-10T10:50:08","date_gmt":"2025-01-10T10:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/10\/emma-raducanu-refuses-to-treat-insect-bites-at-australian-open-over-doping-test-fears\/"},"modified":"2025-01-10T10:50:08","modified_gmt":"2025-01-10T10:50:08","slug":"emma-raducanu-refuses-to-treat-insect-bites-at-australian-open-over-doping-test-fears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/10\/emma-raducanu-refuses-to-treat-insect-bites-at-australian-open-over-doping-test-fears\/","title":{"rendered":"Emma Raducanu refuses to treat insect bites at Australian Open over doping test fears"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Emma<\/div>


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Emma Raducanu has revealed she refused to use an antiseptic spray to treat insect bites for fear of failing a drug test before the Australian Open.<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old British tennis star said her hand and ankle swelled up but she refused the treatment in case contamination led to a positive doping test.<\/p>\n

Raducanu<\/a><\/strong> told reporters at a pre-tournament news conference on Friday: “All of us are probably quite sensitive to what we take on board, what we use.<\/p>\n

“Yesterday, for example, I got really badly bitten by I don’t know what, like ants, mosquitoes, something. I’m allergic, I guess.<\/p>\n

“They flared up and swelled up really a lot.”<\/p>\n

She added: “Someone was, like, giving me this antiseptic spray, natural, to try to ease the bites.<\/p>\n

“I didn’t want to take it. I didn’t want to spray it. I was just like left there with my swollen ankle and hand.<\/p>\n

“I was, like, I’m just going to tough it out because I don’t want to risk it.<\/p>\n

“It’s obviously a concern on our mind. We’re all in the same boat.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s just how we manage as best as we can the controllables. If something out of our control happens, then it’s going to be a bit of a struggle to try and prove.”<\/p>\n

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\n Image:<\/span>
\n Raducanu during a practice session in Melbourne ahead of the Australian Open. Pic: AP
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\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

‘I’m a dangerous opponent for anyone’<\/strong><\/p>\n

Raducanu pulled out of her scheduled warm-up tournament in Auckland last week with what she described as a back niggle, but has been training at Melbourne Park this week.<\/p>\n

She said the source of the problem was a spasm suffered while training in London.<\/p>\n

“One morning I was warming up, bent over to tie my laces, and I had a spasm. That was really it,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It took a while to clear. I’ve had them before. They’ve usually settled within a few days. But this one niggled for a couple of weeks. I had to miss quite a bit of training before I left, wasn’t able to play Auckland.”<\/p>\n

Asked how she was feeling ahead of the start of the tournament in Melbourne, she said: “I’ve been feeling good. I think the last 10 days I’ve had a positive block of training.<\/p>\n

“Coming back on the court, adapting to the conditions here, has been good for me. Now I feel good and I feel ready to give it my best here.”<\/p>\n

She added: “I’ve been playing sets with top players. I’m feeling like I’m holding my own more than okay in those instances and practices.<\/p>\n

“I feel pretty good with my game. I’m looking forward to putting it on the match court. I think I can be a dangerous opponent for anyone really.”<\/p>\n

Read more from Sky News:<\/strong>
Cameron Norrie ‘not happy’ after throwing racket into crowd<\/a><\/strong>
Why are MPs calling for England to boycott cricket match?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Raducanu faces a challenging start to the campaign – a first-round match on Monday against 26th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova.<\/p>\n

“It’s a tricky draw, of course,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Being unseeded, you can play any top opponent. She’s a player with a lot of experience. I guess I’m coming in with the underdog mentality. She’s been in this situation many more times than I have.”<\/p>\n

The Grand Slam at Melbourne Park begins on Sunday 12 January.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Emma Raducanu has revealed she refused to use an antiseptic spray to treat insect bites for fear of failing a drug test before the Australian Open. The 22-year-old British tennis star said her hand and ankle swelled up but she refused the treatment in case contamination led to a positive doping test. Raducanu told reporters […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212189,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/25\/01\/768x432\/skynews-emma-raducanu-tennis_6795861.jpg?20250110095012","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[755,35104,23371,49706,2622,6487,39,67808,5687,848,4423],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212188"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212188"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":212190,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212188\/revisions\/212190"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}