Australian Open 2026: Emma Raducano thinks her Melbourne schedule ‘illogical’

Raducanu plans her preparations for Sunday carefully.

“After seeing it, the initial reaction was, ‘Oh, it’s late,'” she said. “Then you deal with it, and you try to change and adjust your day.”

With a delayed flight to Melbourne, Raducano did not practice on Friday and postponed her only practice session at the Australian Open to 9pm on Saturday to adapt to the late-night tennis conditions.

“When I played the US Open semifinals, I played the second match of the night, but other than that, I never played that late,” she said.

“So it’s 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 to adapt and deal with that today.”

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

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

Raducano’s lack of training has been evident in the four matches she has played so far this year.

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

“I haven’t taken the results seriously in the last few weeks,” Raducano told BBC Sport.

“I know I’m working my way towards it, and as of this week, I know I’m still on the path to where I want to be.

“I’m very happy with the last few weeks and how I’ve been able to be so realistic about it, and not so emotional.”