Emma Raducanu is already facing an uphill battle at the Australian Open

Emma Raducanu will have to deal with a “very difficult” schedule, in her own words, as she attempts to construct a deep run at the Australian Open for the first time.

This tournament may be widely known as “the happy slam”, but it has yet to bring Raducanu much joy. And 2026 could well continue the pattern.

Having arrived in Melbourne under the shadow of yet another injury-disrupted off-season, she has now been treated with little consideration by tournament director Craig Tiley, who has asked her to play late on Sunday night local time.

Not only will Raducanu have to make do with just a single proper practice session before her opening match – which is against Thailand’s Mananchaya Sawangkaew – but she could end up taking the court at around the same time that the local bars are closing.

“It’s very difficult,” said Raducanu, who had only arrived on mainland Australia on Friday evening after her flight from Hobart was delayed. “You would love to have more time in the environment, more time practising, but I guess I was pretty much handed the schedule.

“I think it’s easy to get down and complain about it, but it’s not going to help. So I’m just trying to focus and turn it around for tomorrow.”

Raducanu also sounded unimpressed by the decision to place her match after a best-of-five-set encounter between Alexander Bublik and Jenson Brooksby, who will take to Margaret Court Arena at 7pm on Sunday. If that one were to go the distance, she might find herself playing into the small hours of Monday morning.

“I think it’s very difficult to be scheduling women’s matches after a potential five-set match,” added Raducanu. “To me, it doesn’t really make as much sense.”

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Whatever else we can say about Raducanu, her career is constantly throwing up unusual scenarios. Last year, her preparations for the Australian Open were disrupted when she suffered bites from jumping ants, causing her hands and ankle to swell up in an allergic reaction.

This time, she has arrived late on site as a result of her last-minute trip to the WTA event in Hobart, where rain delays left the tournament running behind schedule. The delayed flight did not help, ruling out any prospect of an acclimatising hit at Melbourne Park on Friday night.

If there is a pattern Down Under, it favours players who are able to bank a solid off-season and arrive with just the right amount of match-time. Novak Djokovic, who has won this tournament 10 times, is known for his precise and detailed practice schedules, which are still keeping him in contention at the age of 38.

Raducanu stands at the other end of this scale. It is not that she does not want to prepare assiduously; the problem is that her fragile body rarely tolerates a solid training block. This year, she has only recently started running again after resting a bruised foot for several weeks, and her rustiness has manifested in two defeats from her first three matches of the year.

What is more, Raducanu has arrived in Melbourne halfway through a technical rebuild for the second straight season. In 2025, her work to remodel her serve had been interrupted by back spasms. Caught between the old and new motions, she sprayed double-faults in all directions.

This time, she has been trying to add weight to her forehand, which she has identified as the main area in need of improvement if she wants to compete with the likes of Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka.

The problem here is that, if you take a longer swing – which has been her approach in these early matches – then you can be rushed by a powerful opponent. This is exactly how world No 204 Taylah Preston ambushed her in Hobart on Thursday: by hitting into the forehand corner with speed and depth.

Asked about her forehand on Saturday, Raducanu acknowledged that it needs more work. “I need to kind of look at that and shorten it, because I feel like it’s good in certain conditions. But on these very quick courts, it doesn’t really work, so I need to adjust that.”

Further tinkering is also required on her serve, which has been extremely vanilla over the past 10 days or so. She has only a couple of aces to show for the three matches she has played to date.

“I pretty much started hitting on the 20th of December,” Raducanu added. “So it’s not been much time at all. After not playing for two months at the end of last year, I think I need to work on the serve. I got to a really good spot last year with it [but] serve and forehand are two big parts of the game that I want to keep working on.”

At least Raducanu is seeded this time, which means that she will face less demanding opposition than last year. In 2025, a season in which she experienced consistently rotten luck with her draws, she fought like a demon to squeak past both Amanda Anisimova and Ekaterina Alexandrova in two tight straight-setters.

Both these players finished the season inside the world’s top 10, which shows their quality. And so did Iga Swiatek, who ended up crushing Raducanu in the third round by a chastening 6-1, 6-0 scoreline.

In 2026, Raducanu’s opening opponent will be far less celebrated. At 23, Sawangkaew stands at No 195 in the world, and has yet to play at a major. But she did warm up for the Australian Open by winning a second-tier event in her native Thailand.

“I think it’s a very dangerous opponent, a very dangerous situation to be in, so I’m ready for a tough one,” said Raducanu. “Also, there is not as much data [or] information about these players. You don’t know that much about them, so there is that element of surprise, too.”