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

Tennis players are used to short turnarounds, but Emma Raducanu has questioned the logic of her Australian Open first-round match being played on Sunday night in Melbourne.

British number one Raducanu only arrived at the opening Grand Slam of the season on Saturday after reaching the quarter-finals of a warm-up tournament in Hobart and being hindered by a delayed flight.

Less than 48 hours later, the 23-year-old, who is seeded at a major for the first time in over three years, will face Thailand's Mananchaya Sawangkaew.

"It's very difficult," said Raducanu, who is ranked 29th in the world.

"You would love to have more time in the environment, more time practising, but I guess I was pretty much handed the schedule to try and turn it around.

"I have to make the most out of what is in front of me. It's easy to complain about it, but it's not going to help."

The other concern about the scheduling is a potential late-night start.

Raducanu and Sawangkaew have been placed second on Margaret Court Arena in the evening session, following a men's singles match between Kazakh 10th seed Alexander Bublik and American opponent Jenson Brooksby.

That five-set match begins at 7pm local time (06:00 GMT), meaning there is the potential for Raducanu to not arrive on court until close to midnight.

"I think it's very difficult to be scheduling women's matches after a potential five-set match. To me, it doesn't really make as much sense," the 2021 US Open champion said.

Raducanu is planning her preparations for Sunday carefully.

"After seeing it, the initial reaction is 'oh, it's a late one'," she said. "Then you deal with it, try and shift your day and adjust."

With the delayed flight to Melbourne, Raducanu did not train on Friday and pushed her sole practice session at the Australian Open back to 9pm on Saturday to adjust to late-night tennis conditions.

"When I played the semis of the US Open I played second night match, but other than that, I haven't played that late," she said.

"So it's a new experience, something that I need to learn to do.

"Hopefully if I'm playing this game for a long time, I'll probably be in this situation again, so it's a good learning step to try and adjust and deal with that day."

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

However, the off-season technical work she planned to put in with coach Francisco Roig - who helped Rafael Nadal win 16 of his 22 major titles - was hampered by a foot injury.

Raducanu's lack of practice has been evident in the four matches she has played so far this year.

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

"I haven't really taken the results in the past few weeks too seriously," Raducanu told BBC Sport.

"I know I am working my way into it, and even this week, I know I still am on the way to where I want to be.

"I'm very happy with the last few weeks - how I was able to be very matter of fact about it, not too emotional."

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