By British tennis star Emma Raducanu says she turned down treatment for insect bites ahead of this year’s Australian Open over concerns about what she could be putting in her body.
The 22-year-old told reporters that she had been badly bitten by bugs during her preparation for the tournament but decided to “tough it out” without medication due to heightened doping concerns across the sport.
“I would say all of us are probably quite sensitive to what we take onboard, and what we use,” Raducanu said.
“Yesterday, for example, I got really badly bitten by like ants, mosquitoes, something. I’m allergic, I guess, so they flared up and swelled up really a lot.
“Someone was giving me this antiseptic spray, you know, natural, to try and ease the bites but 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 comes amid two high-profile doping cases which shook the world of tennis last year involving Jannik Sinner and Iga Świątek .
World No. 1 Sinner has so far avoided suspension from competition since the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) announced in August that he wasn’t at fault despite testing positive for Clostebol, an anabolic steroid, at low levels from a sample that was collected on March 10.
Sinner has said the positive tests stemmed from “inadvertent contamination of Clostebol” through treatment from his physiotherapist.
However, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) said in September that it was lodging an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) after an independent tribunal, convened by the ITIA, found Sinner wasn’t culpable.
Ahead of this year’s Australian Open, Sinner told reporters he still didn’t know when the appeal would be heard in court.
Meanwhile, former women’s world No. 1 Świątek accepted a one-month suspension last year after testing positive for the banned substance trimetazidine, which can boost endurance.
Świątek, a five-time grand slam winner, initially said she was “shocked” at the results and told reporters this week that the period was the “worst time in my life.”
Tests found that her supply of melatonin, which Świątek said she took to help her sleep, was contaminated.
With both Świątek and Sinner still navigating the fallout from their cases, Raducanu said she is perhaps more sensitive than before.
“It’s obviously a concern on our mind but we’re all in the same boat. I think it’s just how we manage as best as we can the controllables,” she added. “If something out of our control happens, then it’s going to be a bit of a struggle to try and prove.”
Raducanu is set to face Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova on Monday in the first round of this year’s Australian Open.
