FILE PHOTO: Tennis - Australian Open - Press Conference - Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia - January 10, 2025 Britain's Emma Raducanu during a press conference ahead of the Australian Open REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas/File Photo
(Reuters) - Fear of ingesting a contaminated substance led Britain's Emma Raducanu to turn down treatment for an insect bite ahead of the Australian Open which starts this weekend.
Speaking ahead of her opening round match against Russian 26th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova, the former U.S. Open champion said recent high-profile doping cases had made her wary.
"I got really badly bitten by I don't know what, like ants, mosquitoes, something. I'm allergic, I guess," Raducanu said at her pre-tournament media conference.
"They flared up and swelled up really a lot. Someone was 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 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.' It's obviously a concern on our mind."
Tennis was rocked last year when men's world number one Jannik Sinner tested positive for banned substance clostebol but escaped a ban after an independent tribunal hearing found that he bore no fault or negligence.
Sinner's explanation that he had been inadvertently contaminated with the substance by his physiotherapist during a massage was accepted, although the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has appealed against the decision.
Women's five-times Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek also escaped a lengthy ban after a tribunal accepted that her failed doping test for banned substance trimetazidine had been the result of a contaminated batch of sleeping drug melatonin.
Those cases will remain a hot topic in Melbourne and Raducanu said players have to be extra careful.
"We're all in the same boat. I think it's just how we manage as best as we can the controllables," she said.
"If something out of our control happens, then it's going to be a bit of a struggle to try and prove."
(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Toby Davis)
