Emma Raducanu has suddenly been given a new opponent in Dubai (Image: Getty)
Emma Raducanu will face a new opponent at the Dubai Tennis Championships on Monday after qualifier Elisabetta Cocciaretto suddenly pulled out of the tournament hours before their first-round clash. Italian star Cocciaretto has been on a tear of late – she also qualified for last week’s WTA 1000 in Doha and stunned Coco Gauff on her way to the quarter-finals.
The world No. 40 then had a quick turnaround, heading to Dubai and beginning her qualifying campaign just a day after losing in Doha. Cocciaretto won two matches to make it to the main draw, setting up a contest with Raducanu, but has now withdrawn, citing a thigh injury.
The Italian has been replaced by lucky loser Antonia Ruzic, who will face Raducanu in the fourth match on Court 2 on Monday. The news came hours before the match, just as play in Dubai had started for the day. And it comes as another blow to tournament organisers, who have been hit with so many withdrawals that Ruzic is now the sixth lucky loser to get into the main draw.
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The world No. 67 had lost her first-round qualifying match to Rebecca Sramkova. Anastasia Zakharova, Hailey Baptiste, Peyton Stearns, Magdalena Frech and Kamilla Rakhimova also made it in despite losing in qualifying.
Cocciaretto had a brutal schedule after making it to the last eight in Doha last week. She lost to Jelena Ostapenko on Thursday and, by Friday, was already on the court in Dubai, beating Donna Vekic in the first round of qualifying. The world No. 40 then beat Zakharova to reach the main draw, where she was due to face Raducanu, but all of the tennis has caught up to her.
Cocciaretto wasn’t the only player who pulled out of Dubai after going deep in Doha. Karolina Muchova, who won a maiden WTA 1000 title in Doha over the weekend, from the Dubai Championships due to a ‘change of schedule’.
Elisabetta Cocciaretto has pulled out of Dubai hours before she was due to face Emma Raducanu (Image: Getty)
Maria Sakkari and Olympic champion Qinwen Zheng, who made her comeback in Doha last month following a four-month injury layoff, also withdrew due to illness. And the biggest blow came when world Nos. 1 and 2 Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek pulled out of the tournament.
Sabalenka has not played since losing in the Australian Open final, while Swiatek lost to Sakkari in last week’s Doha quarter-finals. The six-time Major champion admitted she hadn’t been happy with the quality of her game and wanted more time to work on her new weapons – and she seems to have taken that time now.
Tournament director Salah Tahlak wasn’t happy with Sabalenka and Swiatek’s late withdrawals and called for players to be hit with greater penalties when pulling out. “It was an unfortunate surprise to get news of the withdrawal of Aryna and Iga. And the reasons for withdrawal were a bit strange. Iga said she wasn’t mentally ready to compete, while Sabalenka said she has some minor injuries,” he told The National.
For Raducanu, this will be her first match in Dubai since she was left in tears when a fixated spectator turned up to her second-round clash with Muchova last year. She played on but lost in straight sets. In a statement, the WTA later clarified: “On Monday, February 17, Emma Raducanu was approached in a public area by a man who exhibited fixated behaviour. This same individual was identified in the first few rows during Emma’s match on Tuesday at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships and subsequently ejected. He will be banned from all WTA events pending a threat assessment.”
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