Raducanu withdraws from Madrid Open as illness absence nears two months

Emma Raducanu will extend her absence from the WTA Tour because of a viral illness to two months after she withdrew from the coming week’s Madrid Open.

Raducanu has not competed since a 6-1, 6-1 loss to Amanda Anisimova in the second round of the Indian Wells Open on 8 March. She briefly trained on-site at the Miami Open just over a week later before citing lingering symptoms from an earlier viral illness as the reason for her withdrawal. Raducanu had been affected by a viral illness during the Middle East swing in February, which she said had contributed to her poor performances on the court.

In the aftermath of her withdrawal from the Miami Open, Raducanu took a considerable amount of time off from training. She only recently returned to practice and she now must build up her match fitness again. According to her representatives, Raducanu is hopeful of competing at the Italian Open in Rome, which begins in two weeks on 4 May. Should she decide to compete there, her absence from most of the clay-court season will make the challenge of performing on her least favourite surface even tougher.

This layoff is merely the latest disruption in Raducanu’s turbulent career. The second half of her hopeful 2025 season was by far the most stable period of her career, with the Briton competing regularly on the tour, performing well enough and returning to the top 30. However, the first fourth months of 2026 have been a disaster.

A foot injury suffered at the end of last season meant Raducanu began training at full intensity only a couple of days before her first match of the season, a loss to Maria Sakkari at the United Cup in Perth on 5 January. Her one positive week came in her run to the final of the WTA 250 event in Cluj, Romania, her father’s original country, as the No 1 seed. It is the only time Raducanu has won consecutive matches since the US Open in August and the Briton is a tepid 7-7 in 2026.

Raducanu started the season having made technical changes to her forehand, which performed poorly throughout her time in Australia. After indicating that she would revert to her old technique, Raducanu opted to end her six-month coaching partnership with Francisco Roig. Roig has actually worked with two players since Raducanu last competed, with the Spaniard breaking off his coaching partnership with Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard in favour of working with the six-time grand slam champion Iga Swiatek.

The Madrid Open will be without a number of men’s stars this week. Carlos Alcaraz was forced to withdraw from his home Masters 1000 tournament after suffering a wrist injury this week at the Barcelona Open and Novak Djokovic, who has competed just once since his run to the Australian Open final, also chose to withdraw from the tournament because of injury. Meanwhile, it is unclear whether Jack Draper, a finalist at the Caja Mágica last year, will be back in Madrid after retiring from his first-round match in Barcelona.