Tournament director Nicolas Lamperin has defended Auckland’s indoor court docket surfaces after Emma Raducanu made a tearful exit from the Australian Open lead-up occasion.
Rain has dogged the WTA occasion since Wednesday, and forecasts paint a grim image for the remainder of the match, which has reached the quarter-final stage.
All matches on Thursday had been completed on coaching courts contained in the Auckland venue, which don’t have any room for followers.
Persistent rain on Friday postponed play till 1:30pm native, when high seed Coco Gauff headed inside for her first-up quarter-final in opposition to Lin Zhu.
Gauff, third seed Leylah Fernandez and seventh seed Danka Kovinic negotiated the indoor courts to succeed in the final eight on Thursday, however Raducanu wasn’t so fortunate.
The Briton raced to a 6-0 first set win over qualifier Viktoria Kuzmova however rolled her ankle within the second, retiring after dropping the set 7-5.
“It’s difficult to take … the courts are incredibly slick, like very slippery, so to be honest it’s not a surprise that this happened to someone,” Raducanu mentioned on Thursday night time after the loss.
The 20-year-old could have scans on Friday to evaluate her readiness for the primary grand slam of the season, beginning in 10 days.
Lamperin mentioned he was “very sorry” for Raducanu, the 2021 US Open champion who endured an injury-plagued 12 months in 2022.
“I want to make sure she is okay … I understand the frustration,” he mentioned.
“Every player, they work really hard in the off-season and that’s not what you expect when you play a tournament in week one.
“However, accidents occur on a regular basis. It might have occurred on outside courts as nicely.”
Lamperin said Raducanu’s injury was the only one to occur on the indoor courts, which he insisted had the same surface as outdoor.
Auckland is hosting the ASB Classic for the first time since 2020 – when Serena Williams won her last WTA title – after two years of COVID cancellations.
Despite the unseasonal rain, many fans are still showing up to the event, sitting in the stands and watching play on big screens.
Lamperin declined to outline the financial hit to the event, and said the rain and Raducanu’s comments wouldn’t hurt the tournament’s reputation.
“It’s clearly very difficult and never the expertise that we want to ship to the gamers and to the followers however we simply must cope with it,” he mentioned.
“I do not suppose long run it’s going to have any unfavorable influence on the match.”
