Judy Murray insisted her comment calling Emma Raducanu’s withdrawal from playing with Andy Murray ‘astonishing’ was merely sarcasm.
Two-time singles champion Murray was denied one last appearance at Wimbledon after Raducanu withdrew on Saturday morning.
Raducanu cited stiffness in her wrist as the reason for her withdrawal, with the duo set to face Marcelo Arevalo and Zhang Shuai at the All England Club as part of Murray’s career swansong.
Sports presenter Marcus Buckland wrote on X: “Astonishing news that Emma Raducanu has withdrawn from her mixed doubles match with Andy Murray.
“She’s citing soreness in her right wrist.
“It means Murray has played his last match at Wimbledon. Oh dear!”
Responding to the post, Judy Murray said: “Yes, astonishing.”
That message went viral and on Sunday morning she clarified what she meant.
She wrote on X: “Not sure anyone understands sarcasm these days. Pretty sure the scheduling (4th match court 1 with a singles following day) will have played a major part in any decision making.”
According to the Daily Telegraph, Sir Andy – who also won Olympic gold at SW19 at London 2012 – is ‘extremely disappointed’ by the last minute collapse of what could have been one final chance to play on Wimbledon’s hallowed grass.
Murray got a huge send-off on Thursday night as Sue Barker and Novak Djokovic turned out for an emotional farewell on Centre Court.
That men’s doubles defeat alongside brother Jamie Murray will now go down as his last SW19 appearance.
Explaining her decision to withdraw from the contest, Raducanu said: “Unfortunately I woke up with some stiffness in my right wrist this morning, so therefore I have decided to make the very tough decision to withdraw from the mixed doubles tonight.
“I’m disappointed as I was really looking forward to playing with Andy but got to take care.”
Raducanu is still expected to be in action on Sunday when she faces Lulu Sun in the women’s singles round of 16.
Murray, who is set to retire from tennis later this year, was forced to withdraw from the men’s singles due to injury.
It’s expected he will use this extra time to properly recover from his recent back surgery to play at the Paris 2024 Olympics, which will be his final tournament.
While Raducanu pulled out of the mixed doubles just hours before their first round game on Saturday, it appears her team were never fully sold on the idea on her playing three times in three days.
“For me it was a no-brainer,’ the former US Open champion said.
“In my team, they were asking me, ‘Emma, are you sure you want to play? Just in case you’re still in the tournament’. I was like, ‘No-brainer’.”
Raducanu is set jump back into the world’s top 100 due to her success so far at Wimbledon this year, having dropped outside the world’s top 300 after years of injury struggles, which included surgery on both wrists.
She beat ninth seed Maria Sakkari on Friday to make the second week of a Grand Slam for the first time since her famous US Open triumph in 2021, and is therefore prioritising her singles run.
Raducanu now faces Lulu Sun on Sunday for a place in the quarter-finals.