Emma Raducanu said on Wednesday that she is “super excited” to play with compatriot Andy Murray in the mixed doubles at Wimbledon, and added that taking to the court alongside the British tennis legend will be a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
Raducanu, 21, booked her place in the third round of the women’s singles on Wednesday as she swept aside world No. 33 Elise Mertens 6-2, 6-2 in a match that took just over an hour.
Earlier on Wednesday, the All England Club announced that it had awarded Raducanu and Murray a wild-card entry in the mixed doubles, pairing two of the biggest names in British tennis.
Murray, 37, withdrew from the men’s singles at Wimbledon on Tuesday, a little more than a week after undergoing surgery to remove a spinal cyst. He is also set to compete in the men’s doubles with his brother, Jamie.
“My doubles record isn’t exactly the longest, or the most vast, but I couldn’t say no,” Raducanu said after her victory over Mertens. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
“It’s a dream of mine since I was a young girl, since watching the Olympics. Andy’s a hero to all of us. So for me, it’s a real gift and it’s a real honour that he asked me and it’s a moment that I could never say no to. And I’m just super excited to be on the mixed doubles court and hopefully learn a thing or two about coming to the net or something!”
Following a practice session at Wimbledon on Wednesday, Murray said that he had been thinking about playing alongside Raducanu for years and that he was worried that she might not agree with the idea.
“We’d spoken about it during the COVID year but obviously both of us were doing quite well in the singles and it didn’t happen,” he said.
“Last night I messaged her coach and asked if he thought it might be something she’d be up for doing. He said it was worth asking, so I did. It was quite late yesterday evening when I sent the message, it would have been after 9 p.m. so I was a bit worried she might have been in bed.
“But I got a quick reply. She said: ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’ That was it.”
The British pair will face a tough task in their first-round match after being drawn to face El Salvador’s Marcelo Arevalo and China’s Zhang Shuai. Arevalo won the men’s doubles title at the French Open for the second time in June, while Zhang is also a two-time Grand Slam doubles champion.