Emma Raducanu has withdrawn from the Italian Open because of her continued difficulties with post-viral illness, with the announcement coming less than 30 minutes after she conducted upbeat media interviews.<\/p>\n
Raducanu has spent the last few days competing at the Foro Italico, playing practice sets with other competitors and, having received a bye as a seeded player, she was scheduled to contest her second-round match against Solana Sierra or a qualifier.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday evening, Raducanu conducted her mandatory pre-tournament media obligations, speaking about her progress after a tricky spell. \u201cLast two months, in the beginning, it was quite difficult,\u201d she said. \u201cWasn\u2019t feeling the best physically. And I think it had just been lingering for a while. Whereas the last three weeks, I think I\u2019ve really turned a corner and I feel so much better.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that\u2019s a really positive thing for me. I feel great on the court. I feel like every day I\u2019m working towards something. The break has helped me feel really motivated coming back, very hungry and happy to be out here training and putting out great sessions every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Less than half an hour later, the tournament supervisor confirmed at 7pm local time that Raducanu had withdrawn. Players on-site at tournaments on both the WTA and ATP tours are required to conduct at least one post-withdrawal activity, which includes media availability, in order to avoid a fine. Had she not spoken to the media, Raducanu would have received a $15,000 (\u00a311,000) fine for not complying with the on-site withdrawal rules.<\/p>\n
It is not unusual for players to withdraw from tournaments a day or two after conducting their media duties. However, in Raducanu\u2019s situation, most players would have first withdrawn before explaining the withdrawal in their press conference.<\/p>\n
Raducanu\u2019s withdrawal means her absence from the sport will extend to more than two months. The British No 1 had begun to struggle with a virus throughout the Middle East swing in February but the symptoms had not abated by early March.<\/p>\n
After a poor showing that month at Indian Wells, losing 6-1, 6-1 to Amanda Anisimova in the third round, she opted to spend an extended period on the sidelines.<\/p>\n
Emma Raducanu in action against Amanda Anisimova at Indian Wells in March. The British No 1 has not played since. Photograph: Robert Prange\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
This has been another difficult year for Raducanu, who started the season with a foot injury before her illness. She had appeared to turn a corner in recent weeks, briefly reuniting with her former coach Andrew Richardson to build up her match fitness at the Ferrer academy in Benidorm. Asked if these challenges were mentally draining, Raducanu responded with optimism.<\/p>\n
\u201cPotentially [draining mentally],\u201d she said. \u201cWhen you have things going on, every day you\u2019re working at it, it\u2019s something you have in your head, but now in terms of body, injuries-wise, I feel very good. I don\u2019t have anything that\u2019s bothering me, and I\u2019m just able to put out good days and I feel like I\u2019m approaching each day, shot with great purpose. I have a lot of energy and motivation inside of me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emma Raducanu has withdrawn from the Italian Open because of her continued difficulties with post-viral illness, with the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":652498,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-652497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}