Raducanu pulls out of Madrid Open

 Emma Raducanu's absence from the WTA Tour will be extended by at least two more weeks following her withdrawal from the upcoming Madrid Open.

The British number one has struggled to shake off a viral illness which first affected her at tournaments in the Middle East in February.

Raducanu competed at Indian Wells in early March but then skipped the Miami Open and the Linz Open, which had been due to be her first clay court event of the year.

The 23-year-old former US Open winner has been working primarily on her fitness since then and is likely to need a considerable amount of time to train on clay before returning to the tour.

Raducanu has shown she is capable of becoming a fine clay court player but has never found moving on the surface easy and will be wary of the stress it can put on her intermittently troublesome back.

Raducanu had a very promising debut clay court season in 2022 - the year after she won the US Open in New York as a teenager - but hurt her back in Madrid and had to retire from her first match in Rome a week later.

Much of 2023 was lost to the operations she had on her hands and left ankle. In 2024, Raducanu played very promisingly on indoor clay, winning two matches for Great Britain against France in the Billie Jean King Cup before reaching the quarter-finals in Stuttgart.

But that was followed by a heavy first-round defeat by qualifier Maria Lourdes Carle in Madrid.

Raducanu said she was "mentally and emotionally exhausted" and did not play on clay again that year, choosing to skip the French Open to prioritise a training block that she thought would benefit her fitness in the second half of the year.

She played four clay court events last year, with the highlight a run to the fourth round in Rome, but experienced further back issues in Strasbourg and after competing at Roland Garros.

Her next opportunity to play on clay will be at the Italian Open in Rome from 5 May. There are also two tournaments - in Strasbourg and Rabat - the week before the French Open, which rounds off the clay court swing.

If Raducanu does not appear at all on clay, her break will extend to three months and leave her painfully short of matches heading into the grass court season