From late-night text to mother’s fury: How the Murray-Raducanu Wimbledon saga unfolded

It was late that evening he plucked up the courage and asked Raducanu the question. Like a reporter trying to secure an unlikely interview with a sports star, he went the formal route and sense-checked the idea with Raducanu’s long-time coach, Nick Cavaday, as a cautious first step. “He said it was worth asking, so I did, and she said yeah, she’d be up for it,” said Murray.

The request was crafted in the most Gen Z way possible. A late-night text message – sent after 9pm. Murray assumed Raducanu would be asleep and did not expect to hear from her until the morning, but to his surprise his phone buzzed back almost instantly. “Yeah, let’s do it,” said Raducanu, who later revealed she made up her mind in “literally like 10 seconds”.

Over the next two days, the hype was dialled up. In a week where scheduling was blighted by unseasonably drab weather, the Murray-Raducanu double act became the hottest ticket in town. Raducanu was both pressed for further details for accepting Murray’s request and scrutinised over her decision. Did she worry that it would impact her joyous run in the singles? Had she thought about the possibility of burnout?

“In my team, they were asking me, ‘Emma, are you sure you want to play? Just in case … You’re still in the tournament,’” she said. “I was like ‘no-brainer’. Yeah, I think that gave me so much energy, and just knowing that I’d be able to have that opportunity and experience, it made me so happy and I slept very peacefully and woke up very happy as well.”

On Saturday morning, the mood was less jovial, despite the England top that Raducanu wore during her practice session, before her team issued a statement about her decision to withdraw because of stiffness in her right wrist.

The Muraducanu dream was over before it had scarcely begun.