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

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.”