SYDNEY – US Open champion Emma Raducanu has withdrawn from Australian Open warm-up tournament in Melbourne having just come out of isolation after testing positive for Covid-19, she said.
Raducanu, who became the first qualifier to win a Grand Slam when she triumphed at Flushing Meadows in September, had pulled out of the Mubadala World Tennis Championship exhibition event in Abu Dhabi last month after contracting the virus.
The world number 19 is scheduled to compete in the Sydney Classic later this month before making her debut in the January 17-30 Australian Open.
The 19-year-old was scheduled to headline one of the two women’s WTA 250 warm-up tournaments taking place at Melbourne Park – dubbed the ‘Melbourne Summer Set’ – from January 4-9.
“The timing to compete in the first Melbourne event this week is too soon for me, having just returned from isolation,” Raducanu was quoted as saying by the organizers according to Reuters.
Elsewhere, world number four Stefanos Tsitsipas pulled out of his ATP Cup opener against Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz in Sydney due to a niggling right elbow issue, tournament organisers said.
Tsitsipas was forced to retire from the second round of the Paris Masters and lost his opening match against Andrey Rublev at the ATP Finals in November before withdrawing from the season-ending tournament due to the injury.
The 23-year-old Greek, who had posted pictures of himself on a hospital bed during the off-season, sported an ice pack on his right arm in Sydney before his match against Polish world number nine Hurkacz.
He was replaced by Aristotelis Thanos. But Tsitsipas played down concerns that the issue would derail his campaign at the Australian Open, which begins on Jan. 17.
“The recovery from my elbow surgery in November is on track for Melbourne and was a precautionary step to make sure I make (it to) Melbourne,” Tsitsipas said.
“We will see day by day, match by match until then.”
Meanwhile, Roberto Bautista Agut got Spain’s New Year off to a perfect start with a crushing ATP Cup win over Chilian world number 17 Cristian Garin as he spearheads the team in Rafael Nadal’s absence.
The 33-year-old, ranked two places below Garin, barely broke a sweat in the 6-0, 6-3 win at the Ken Rosewall Arena in Sydney, ensuring Spain won their Group A tie on day one of the season-opening tournament.
“I played a very solid game, good rhythm and good speed,” he said. “I’m very happy because I won my point for the team.”
Bautista Agut, a nine-time ATP Tour titlist, was part of the Nadal-led Spain team that made the final at the inaugural teams event in 2020, when they were beaten by Novak Djokovic’s Serbia.
He is the lead singles player this time after 20-time Grand Slam champion Nadal opted to play an Australian Open lead-up event in Melbourne instead.
Whether Nadal would make it to Australia at all was in doubt after he tested positive for the coronavirus after an exhibition tournament in Abu Dhabi last month.
But he tweeted a photo of himself on an empty court at Melbourne Park late Friday with the comment: “Don’t tell anyone… here I am.”
A number of other players in Abu Dhabi also tested positive; including Russia’s world number five Andrey Rublev, who is out of the ATP Cup.
Defending champions Russia, who beat Italy in last year’s final, starts their campaign against France.
Spain’s number two, the 20th-ranked Pablo Carreno Busta, earlier came through 6-4, 7-6 (7/4) against Chile’s Alejandro Tabilo, battling back from 3-0 down in both sets.
Each tie comprises two singles matches and one doubles with the winning nation from each of the four groups making the semi-finals.
In the other morning tie, Argentina cruised past Georgia with world number 13 Diego Schwartzman annihilating 22nd-ranked Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-1, 6-2.
His teammate Federico Delbonis enjoyed a memorable tournament debut by thrashing Aleksandre Metreveli by the same score.
“It’s always very difficult to start a tie, so I was very happy when Federico beat his opponent very quickly, very easily,” said Schwartzman.
“So it was comfortable for me to start the second point with already a win for the team.”
In the evening ties, Serbia – who are without Djokovic – kick off against Casper Ruud’s Norway in Group A while Stefanos Tsitsipas’s Greece take on Poland in Group D.
