Auckland Chief Lamperin hits back at Raducanu court comments
WTA
Emma Raducanu blamed the tennis courts at the 2023 ASB Classic in Auckland for her injury, but tournament director Nicolas Lamperin hit back at those comments.
To start the 2023 season, the young Brit chose to compete in Auckland, even though it was not easy to convince Raducanu to play at the ASB Classic, according to the tournament director.
But after the tournament, both probably regretted the decision. The British player injured herself during her second-round match against Viktoria Kuzmova, and she wasn't happy about the conditions in Auckland.
Lamperin's tournament received plenty of negative attention as a result, which not tournament director wants. Raducanu stated that the courts in Auckland were very slippery. According to her, it wasn't surprising that someone got injured.
"The courts are incredibly slick, like very slippery, so to be honest it’s not a surprise that this happened to someone."
Raducanu was really disappointed about injuring herself, which is why her words were maybe said in anger. Lamperin heard those comments, and he had a response to the comments made by the 2021 US Open when talking to stuff.co.nz.
"It is still GreenSet. The courts have been laid out by the same company. We are obviously very sorry about Emma’s injury. Every player works really hard in the off season and that’s not what you expect when you play a tournament in week one."
The tournament had to move from outdoors to indoors because of the weather, and that was the change that Raducanu wasn't happy about, but according to Lamperin, the conditions were the same, and injuries can happen anywhere.
"However, injuries happen all the time, it could have happened on an outdoor court. We feel for the situation, but we also say that these courts are fit to play."
