Spoty favourite Raducanu may be forced to give the big night a miss
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playing schedule means 18-year-old will not be in UK announces showpiece will be on Dec 19 in Salford
HBBC
Emma Raducanu, the bookies’ favourite to win BBC Sports Personality of the Year, is likely to be absent for her potential crowning moment as the queen of British sport this December.
Ever since her fairy-tale US Open win last month, as well as her impressive run at Wimbledon in the summer, the 18-year-old has been the top pick for the prestigious television award.
But a scheduling clash threatens to deprive Raducanu of the chance to attend in person, after the BBC announced that the awards will be held on Dec 19 at Salford’s Mediacity. Earlier this week the tennis star confirmed that she will play an exhibition event, the Mubadala
World Tennis Championship, in Abu Dhabi which runs from Dec 16 to 18.
From there, she is expected to travel on to Australia for the start of the 2022 season, with the first major of the new year beginning on Jan 17 in Melbourne. If that is the case, Raducanu may need to take a leaf out of Andy Murray’s book – he accepted two of his three SPOTY awards – in 2013 and 2016 – beside a pool in Miami. Raducanu, who lost her first match since the US Open at Indian Wells last week, will have stiff competition for the award, as her New York triumph came during an Olympic and Paralympic year, the England men’s football team reached the Euro 2020 final in July, Lewis Hamilton became the first driver to claim 100 race wins – with a record eighth world title still possible – and Tyson Fury retained his World Boxing Council heavyweight title after knocking out Deontay Wilder in Las Vegas on Saturday.
The latter has a controversial history with the award and could again boycott the year-ending event. Last year, Fury demanded the BBC remove him from the shortlist, declaring himself “the people’s champion” and saying he did not need further validation with awards.
The BBC refused, despite Fury even involving his legal team.
The row came after his omission from the shortlist in 2018, despite delivering one of the moments of the year in his first clash with Wilder, which ended in a draw.
Meanwhile, in 2015 a petition to remove him from the shortlist, on account of his historical homophobic and sexist comments, gained more than 100,000 signatures.