Emma Raducanu recently admitted that she was in the dark about Judy Murray‘s “sarcastic” reaction in the wake of her withdrawal from mixed doubles.
Raducanu had initially agreed to team up with Andy Murray in the Wimbledon mixed doubles. The three-time Grand Slam champion is the son of Judy Murray and was appearing at the All England Club for the last time on a match court ahead of imminent retirement at the Olympics.
Murray had pulled out from his singles match because of a bad back. After retiring at Queen’s, he underwent an uncomplicated procedure so that he could play Wimbledon one final time.
With the men’s doubles tournament kicking off three days after the singles tournament started, he decided to play with his older brother Jamie. However, the pair lost in the opening round to the Australian duo of John Peers and Rinky Hijikata.
After that match, Murray was given time to process the moment and bid goodbye to the Wimbledon crowd, who had been the backbone of his success every time he set foot at SW19.
Before the men’s doubles, Murray had also signed up for mixed doubles and chose former US Open champion and fellow Brit Raducanu to partner him in that event. Their first match was slated on Saturday.
But the 21-year-old withdrew because of a stiff wrist, leaving Murray’s mother devastated. She wrote on X that she was “astonished” by the news. Initially, it was thought that Judy had channeled her anger towards Raducanu.
She has since clarified that she was being sarcastic and criticizing the tournament’s scheduling for putting the match last on Court 1, which might have aided Raducanu’s decision-making, considering she was playing in singles the next day.
Raudcanu, who lost in singles on Sunday to Lulu Sun, was asked whether she had seen Judy Murray’s tweet in response to her news of withdrawing from the high-profile mixed doubles. She had been unaware of it until it was deciphered in her press conference.
“I haven’t seen her reaction, so I don’t know. But what was she sarcastic about? Oh, I’m sure she didn’t mean it.”
