“I mean, for me, it’s like I knew that playing tennis, you’ll spend birthdays, you’ll spend Christmas and New Year’s not at home,” she said, following her 6-3 7-6(3) exhibition victory over good friend Elena-Gabriela Ruse.
Raducanu, who turned 19 earlier this month, admitted she had decided to stay in the Middle East after the Mubadala exhibition tournament rather than flying home and flying back out for the Australian Open.
She continued: “And I feel like for me, it doesn’t matter. You know, I’m there to train, I’m there to get better, and then I’m flying to Australia and like, what’s going to be best for me is staying in the Middle East rather than flying seven hours back and forth, so I feel like it’s not a sacrifice.”
The US Open champion also sounded happy to stay in the Middle East with one of her good friends residing in Dubai, and shared her plans to finish up training in Abu Dhabi before heading to Dubai, and later departing for Australia on December 27.
“Hopefully my mom or dad can come out maybe and I have, one of my best friend lives in Dubai. So I can just see her as well.
“I think I’ll play in Abu Dhabi and probably continue training out there and then the last few days before the flight go to Dubai, but mainly Abu Dhabi.”