Emma Raducanu avoided treating an allergic reaction in the run-up to the Australian Open over fears of registering a positive doping test.

Raducanu, who faces No. 26 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova in the opening round, said in her pre-tournament news conference that she got “badly bitten” by ants or mosquitoes Thursday January 9. Despite suffering what she described as an allergic reaction, Raducanu did not administer an antiseptic spray provided to her by someone in attendance.

“I didn’t want to take it. I didn’t want to spray it,” Raducanu said.

“I was just like left there with my swollen ankle and hand. I was, like, I’m just going to tough it out because I don’t want to risk it.”

Raducanu, 22, used the incident to exemplify how the positive doping tests involving Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek have affected the way their peers think about the risk of contamination from permitted substances. Both players were No. 1 in the world when they tested positive for clostebol, an anabolic steroid, and TMZ, a heart medication, respectively.

Swiatek, 23, successfully proved through laboratory testing that her melatonin medication was contaminated, while tennis integrity authorities accepted Sinner’s explanation that Giacomo Naldi, his physio, had used a healing spray containing clostebol on a cut on his hand which he transmitted to the Italian transdermally during a sports massage.

“I would say all of us are probably quite sensitive to what we take onboard, what we use,” Raducanu said.

“I think it’s just how we manage as best as we can the controllables. If something out of our control happens, then it’s going to be a bit of a struggle to try and prove.”

In their own news conferences, Sinner, 23, and Swiatek reflected on the impact of their experiences. Sinner reiterated that there remains no date for the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to hear the World Anti-Doping Authority (WADA) appeal into his case. WADA is seeking a ban of between one or two years, arguing that an independent tribunal convened by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) was wrong to find that Sinner bore “no fault or negligence.”

Swiatek, meanwhile, explained her motives for describing her September absence from the WTA Tour as a personal matter. “We honestly thought the suspension is going to be lifted soon,” she said.

Swiatek opens her campaign against the Czech Republic’s Katerina Siniakova, while Sinner face Chile’s Nicolas Jarry.

(Photo of Emma Raducanu: William West / AFP via Getty Images)