Emma Raducanu admits she is “quite sensitive” about what she takes amid the recent doping cases in tennis and also reveals she refused to use an antiseptic spray in Melbourne after being presumably bitten by a bug or an insect.
Over the past couple of months, there has been a lot of focus on doping in tennis, mainly because of the high-profile cases of Iga Swiatek and Jannik Sinner.
If two of the very best in the game could have seen their respective tests return as positive due to contamination – and they have large teams and people taking care of everything possible – that means that no else is safe from taking something banned unknowingly.
So Raducanu is being extra careful – although she herself noted that “it is obviously a concern in our mind.”
Raducanu: Someone was giving me an antiseptic spray, I didn’t want to take it
“I would say all of us are probably quite sensitive to what we take onboard, what we use. I mean, yesterday, for example, I got really badly bitten by I don’t know what, like ants, mosquitoes, something. I’m allergic, I guess,” the 22-year-old said.
“They flared up and swelled up really a lot (smiling). Someone was, like, giving me this antiseptic spray, natural, to try to ease the bites. 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. I was, like, I’m just going to tough it out because I don’t want to risk it (laughter).”
When it comes to Raducanu, she hasn’t had any failed doping tests so far.
And if she stays as careful as she is, all the chances are that she won’t have to deal with that stuff ever.
Meanwhile. the British tennis star is set to open her Australian Open campaign by taking on Ekaterina Alexandrova.
Tennis World USA