Emma Raducanu was wrong to ditch doubles date with Andy Murray says top UK star

EMMA RADUCANU has learned a hard lesson about commitment over her Wimbledon mixed doubles no show with Andy Murray.

That’s the opinion of Dan Evans, the former World No 21 in singles – and the man for the majority of his time in the sport has been the Scot’s closest British rival.

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Murray, 37, was given an emotional send-off after playing in the men‘s doubles with brother Jamie on Thursday night.

But there was still meant to be one match left, with Murray and Raducanu announcing during the week that they were forming a British dream team to take part in the mixed doubles.

They were due to face Marcelo Arevalo and Zhang Shuai, with that match scheduled late on Saturday afternoon/evening.

But just hours before they were due to take to the court, Raducanu dramatically pulled out of what could’ve been Murray’s final SW19 match citing an issue with her wrist.

She had a singles match to play on the Sunday – although she went down to inspired qualifier Lulu Sun of New Zealand.

Andy’s mum Judy sarcastically said on X, formerly Twitter, that her withdrawal was ‘astonishing’ – although she was clearly far than happy with the Wimbledon schedulers’ role in the matter.

And now, writing in his Daily Mail column, Evans reckons that Raducanu was WRONG to ditch her doubles date with the Scottish superstar.

The English star – who has sometimes drawn the ire of Murray for his cavalier approach to preparation – insists that Raducanu shouldn’t have committed to play in the first case if there were doubts over her participation.

He’s pointed out the professionalism the Scot showed AFTER his Thursday Wimbledon send off – because he was still preparing for his mixed double tie.

Not to mention the fact he hung around all week for Evans at Roland Garros recently for some doubles match practice on clay after being knocked out in the singles – with the pair set to represent Team GB at the Olympics in Paris on the surface later this month.

Evans said: “It was a privilege to be on court for Andy Murray’s farewell at Wimbledon.

“I had just finished my doubles match when Tim Henman asked a few of us to head over to Centre Court.

“Sue Barker was ready to deliver a few words and struck the perfect tone.

“In many ways, it was fitting that Andy’s final Wimbledon match was with his brother on Centre Court, where he’s had the nation gripped so many times.

“There was no chance to share a beer afterwards because Andy was expecting to play doubles with Emma Raducanu over the weekend.

“He was in full warmdown mode and wanted to remain a top professional until the bitter end.

“He wouldn’t risk anything by not recovering properly and wanted to be in the best possible shape for the mixed doubles.

“It’s unfortunate how it played out, with Emma pulling out a few hours before their match on No1 Court because she had a sore wrist.

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“Of course the singles is a player’s priority – the prize money is substantially more – and that will always be Emma’s main focus.

“But once you agree to play doubles with someone, especially in a special situation like that, you should be fully committed to it.

“I recently played doubles with Andy at Roland Garros and he waited around all week to play with me, having being knocked out in the singles.

“I can’t blame Emma for pulling out, but there’s a lesson in there about not committing unless you’re 100 per cent on board.

“I feel incredibly fortunate to hopefully be sharing the court with Andy in his final event at the Olympic doubles this summer.

“I went for my kit fitting at the LTA suite at Wimbledon yesterday and I’m looking forward to staying in the athlete’s village in Paris.

“I’m going to take a week to chill out and relax now before I get back to it.

“I’ll go home to Cheltenham and enjoy a bit of time with my family, as it’s been a pretty stressful grass season.

“I need to go away and do some work on my knee recovery. We haven’t finalised our schedules yet, but Andy’s practising at the National Tennis Centre in London, so I’ll probably rent a place and join him there in a week or so.

“We have no competitions between now and the Olympics, so it will just be training.”

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