Australian Open 2026: Emma Raducanu believes her Melbourne schedule ‘doesn’t make sense’

Raducanu is carefully planning his preparations for Sunday.

“The first reaction after seeing it was ‘oh, it’s late,'” he said. “Then you deal with it, try to change and adjust your day.”

Due to the delayed flight to Melbourne, Raducanu did not practice on Friday and postponed his only practice session at the Australian Open until 9pm on Saturday to adapt to late-night tennis conditions.

“When I played in the semifinals of the US Open, I played the second night match, but other than that, I didn’t play that late,” he said.

“So this is a new experience, something I have to learn to do.

“Hopefully if I play this game for a long time, I’ll probably be in that situation again, so it’s a good learning step to try and get used to it and adapt to the day.”

Raducanu made encouraging progress in 2025, breaking back into the world top 30 and playing more matches than in any previous season of his career.

However, his planned off-season technical work with coach Francisco Roig, who helped Rafael Nadal win 16 of his 22 major championships, was disrupted by a foot injury.

Raducanu’s lack of training has been evident in all four matches he has played so far this year.

During a timid defeat against 204th-ranked Taylah Preston in Hobart, she often looked uncertain with her shots and played passively, resulting in pressure from her opponent.

“I didn’t take the results of the last few weeks very seriously,” Raducanu told BBC Sport. he said.

“I know I’m striving to get there, and even this week I know I’m still on the path to where I want to be.

“I’m so happy with the last few weeks; how I’ve managed to be realistic about it without being too emotional.”