Emma Raducanu has become the latest victim of Australia’s famously hostile wildlife – although it was not spiders or snakes in her case, but rather “jumping ants”.

During a day off practice ahead of the Australian Open in Melbourne, Raducanu suffered bites on her hand and ankle on Thursday that swelled up and left her considering whether to use an antiseptic spray.

But her anxieties about possible contamination – which has been cited in the recent doping defences of such leading players as Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek – persuaded her to “tough it out because I don’t want to risk it”.

As Raducanu explained on Friday: “I basically got bitten really badly, like, by these, I don’t know, like jumping ants or something. So I spent the second part of my day coming in to sign, seeing the doctor to try to get some remedies, because I had a bit of an allergic reaction. But I’m fine now. I’m allergic, I guess.

“They flared up and swelled up really a lot. Someone was giving me this antiseptic spray, natural, to try to ease the bites. I didn’t want to take it. I didn’t want to spray it. I was just 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.

“It’s obviously a concern on our mind. We’re all in the same boat. 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 [that a positive test is the result of contamination].”

Raducanu has been training at full tilt this week after her withdrawal from Auckland almost a fortnight ago. Her issues there involved back trouble, which began unexpectedly during training at the National Tennis Centre in south-west London.

“One morning I was warming up, bent over to tie my laces, and I had a [back] spasm,” Raducanu explained. “I’ve had them before. They’ve usually settled within a few days. But this one niggled for a couple weeks. I had to miss quite a bit of training before I left. Now I’m feeling good and I feel like I can give it my best here.”

The injury was especially annoying as she had recently engaged the experienced and highly regarded fitness trainer Yutaka Nakamura, who previously supervised other major champions including Maria Sharapova and Naomi Osaka.

Raducanu’s off-season work with Nakamura was seriously inhibited by her sore back, but she has still brought him out to Melbourne with her. While heavy gym sessions are not usually recommended in the build-up to an important event such as Sunday’s Australian Open, she said that they have been “micro-dosing” mini workout sessions throughout the day. (It was an unfortunate turn of phrase, given the recent preponderance of doping controversy in this sport.)

Asked how long she thought it would take to see results from her sessions with Nakamura, Raducanu replied “Building a body [is] a continuous process. It’s not something that you necessarily put a timeline on – like, in a year I’m going to be a top athlete.

“But I think I do already feel a difference when I step on the court. I feel like I’m quite reactive and explosive. I think that stems from my warm-ups being not necessarily warm-ups, but more like a bit of a session. I feel just ready to go.”

Raducanu will open her Australian Open campaign on Tuesday against Ekaterina Alexandrova, a flat-hitting Russian who is the 26th seed here. It is a tough draw, and she said that she was coming in “with an underdog mentality”.

At the same time, though, her mood was surprisingly buoyant for someone who had recently been savaged by the local fauna. “We get to kind of escape the winter a little bit [here],” she said. “When you wake up in the morning, in the evenings, it’s still light outside. It does put a twist, enhances my mood.

“I back myself to the hilt. I feel like I’m in a good place with how I’m approaching my tennis. I was practising with top-10 players, feeling pretty good out there. I think I can be a dangerous opponent for anyone really.”