Carlos Alcaraz supports Emma Raducanu’s withdrawal decision at Wimbledon

Spain’s tennis star Carlos Alcaraz has backed Britain’s Emma Raducanu for deciding to withdraw from the mixed doubles event at Wimbledon. The third Grand Slam of the year, like always, was set to get a lot of attraction, but this year, the interest from the fans has been unlike ever before.

The reason was that the former world number one Andy Murray, who had already announced that he would retire from professional tennis because of fitness concerns after the ongoing mega-event and Paris Olympics, was set to feature at the Olympics for the final time.

Murray, who had to withdraw from the singles category after suffering a back injury during the Queen’s ATP Championship, decided to participate in the doubles and mixed doubles categories. His doubles journey with his brother Jamie ended in the first round as they lost to the Australian pair of John Peers and Rinky Hijikata.

Murray was then due to appear in the mixed doubles category, where he was supposed to team up with Raducanu. However, the 2021 US Open winner decided to withdraw from the competition at the last minute because of a wrist injury. Fans on social media criticised the announcement severely, blaming the young British tennis star for not giving Murray a final chance to say goodbye to his fans in his favourite tournament.

However, Alcaraz, who is already regarded as one of the best players in men’s tennis along with Italy’s Jannik Sinner and Serbia’s Novak Djokovic, was recently quoted in a report backing Raducanu over the decision. The world number three believes that the former world number 10, who herself has recently returned to fitness after spending nearly 12 months on the sidelines, has done the right thing.

“Well, it is a difficult situation,” he said. “I'm not going to lie. Obviously she said she was going to play mixed doubles against Andy Murray, his last Wimbledon of his career. But obviously she's young. I'm sure that she didn't want to pull out from the mixed doubles. I think she had her reasons to do it. I guess physical problems. I'm sure that a lot of players who is in her positions could do the same thing as she [did]. But obviously knowing it's his last Wimbledon of Andy Murray, is difficult to deal with [for him].”