“Felt uneasy”, Ankita after qualification exit
MUMBAI: India’s lone women’s singles player in the Australian Open, Ankita Raina said she felt “uneasy” and “not normal physically” due to the pollution in Melbourne caused by the raging bushfires during her first round qualifying defeat on Tuesday.
The 27-year-old said she was forced to take a medical timeout during her 2-6, 6-7(2) loss to Bulgarian Viktoriya Tomova after feeling a burning sensation in her chest and stomach pain.
“I took the medical timeout in the second set; she was 3-1 and I threw up, so I told the umpire I needed the doctor. It was 3-2 when the physio came on court. I told them I was feeling burn in the chest, pain in the stomach, and was just feeling drained out. That wasn’t usual after one-anda-half sets,” Raina said over phone from Melbourne on Wednesday.
Several players have complained about the toxic air affecting them during qualifying matches. Slovenian Dalila Jakupovic retired midway through her match on Tuesday. Eugenie Bouchard and Bernard Tomic also needed medical timeouts.
Raina, India’s highest-ranked woman player, said she had never experienced such physical problems earlier. “I definitely didn’t feel normal physically, I’m used to playing matches every week, back-to-back, but yesterday I felt very uneasy. In the morning when I got to the venue, the sky wasn’t clear due to the smoke. From the beginning of my match, I was feeling tired and uneasy in my chest,” she said.
Raina had landed in Melbourne on Saturday after playing in the semi-final of a Challenger event in Bendigo, which had been shifted from Canberra due to the bushfires in that region.
Australian Open organisers were forced to postpone qualifying matches on Wednesday. Raina, who played her match on Tuesday morning on Court No. 22, said they could have halted games the previous day as well.
“They could have waited for a couple hours and seen if it got better, because it didn’t seem fair for the players who played yesterday. There were quite a few players yesterday who had trouble with breathing; it would have been due to the smoke. I can understand from the organisers’ point of view, they have lots of matches to get on with. Having said that, the health of the players should be their priority.”