Emma Raducanu turns down Olympics wild card – but Andy Murray in Team GB squad

Emma Raducanu is ranked too low to qualify as she continues her comeback from injury - PA/Mike Egerton

Emma Raducanu has turned down the opportunity of participating in the Paris Olympics, despite being offered a wild-card invitation by the International Tennis Federation.

Raducanu’s decision was revealed at a briefing by the Lawn Tennis Association’s Iain Bates, who is both the head of women’s tennis and the leader of the Olympic tennis delegation.

“Emma feels that this isn’t going to be the right timing for her for this summer,” said Bates of Raducanu, who is due to resume her WTA semi-final against Katie Boulter on Sunday afternoon in Nottingham, having been suspended overnight by a damp court.

“There’s the bit around the surface change between grass and clay and hard,” Bates added. “Everyone’s aware of her history and the double-wrist surgery from last year. That [change of surface] places a greater stress on her.

“And of course, there’s an element of where her ranking is. [She is] pushing her ranking back towards where we all hope it will be, back at the top of the game.”

In one of tennis’s many inexplicable details, there are no rankings points available at the Olympic Games, and players can sometimes make significant gains on the regular tour – which is visiting Washington in that same week – when the leading players are busy competing for medals.

The ITF’s offer of a wild-card invitation only landed on Thursday, following decisions made by other former grand slam champions, such as Naomi Osaka, Caroline Wozniacki and Angelique Kerber. Two places are kept back for players of this stature who do not have a high enough ranking to qualify.

Asked whether he was disappointed by Raducanu’s decision, Bates replied “I’m extremely happy to see her on the court playing the level of tennis that she’s played on and off during the course of this year.

“You forget that Emma is 21,” Bates added. “She’s got hopefully many Olympics ahead of her which is what she said to me. And I think she’ll get many experiences in the future, come Los Angeles hopefully, when she’s 25 and hopefully a medal shot. From an Olympic team side or head-of-women’s-tennis side, I’m very comfortable with the decision that she’s made.”

Meanwhile Andy Murray will have to wait to see whether he squeaks into the men’s doubles event alongside Dan Evans, after a late change of plan.

The way the entry rules for the Olympics work, a top-10 doubles player gets to choose his partner. So the original idea was for Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski – Britain’s two most successful doubles players – to play with Murray and Dan Evans respectively.

But then Skupski went out in the first round of the French Open, with the resultant loss of 360 rankings points dropping him outside the world’s top 10 just at the critical moment when the Olympic entries were decided.

Salisbury’s ranking of No 5 thus became the only guaranteed route for a British men’s doubles pairing in Paris – and he preferred to play with Skupski rather than a singles specialist.

Last week, however, Murray told reporters in Stuttgart that he might skip Paris if his application to the doubles event proved unsuccessful.

“I’m not 100 per cent sure what the situation is there with the doubles yet,” said Murray, “and whether or not I will play if I just get in the singles. My body didn’t feel great playing on the clay in the last month or so. I had quite a few issues with my back, so I don’t know if I would go just for singles.”

Bates confirmed that the LTA has nominated four male singles players (Jack Draper, Cam Norrie, Dan Evans and Murray, who earns an ITF wild card because of his status within the game). Only one female singles player, Katie Boulter, has been nominated because of Raducanu’s decision and the low rankings of the other British women.

In doubles, Salisbury and Skupski are the only guaranteed pairing, while Murray and Evans have a decent chance of making the cut, depending on who else enters from around the world.

The LTA are also nominating two women’s doubles pairings – Boulter and Heather Watson, as well as Harriet Dart and Maia Lumsden – although it is possible that neither will qualify.

Mixed-doubles partnerships will be decided on-site once the players have arrived in Paris.

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