While peers like Katie Boulter and Jack Draper have made use of the recently upgraded red-clay facilities at the National Tennis Centre in south-west London, Raducanu has not been seen on a tennis court lately and has not posted any training videos for some time, leading to questions about whether she will travel to Madrid at all.
European red clay is not readily available in London, with only a handful of clubs having courts made of proper crushed brick, which would limit Raducanu’s options to train elsewhere. Even the All England Club only has green-clay courts.
Wimbledon seeding at risk
Her ranking slipped back to 29 this week, only just inside the top 32 women who will earn seedings at Wimbledon in late June. But with fourth-round points to defend in Rome next month, she will need to be active – and successful – if she wants to retain this valuable protection when the Wimbledon draw comes around.
The European clay-court season is already in full swing and, with a win-rate just north of 50 per cent making clay Raducanu’s statistically worst surface, insiders suggest that – because of the time she needs to adapt – she may already be writing off the whole clay swing and deciding to focus on grass instead.
At this stage last season, Raducanu admitted that the transition was a difficult one for her. Playing her first clay-court event of 2025 in Madrid, she told reporters that “I don’t necessarily feel very comfortable… I found moving really difficult – I felt like I was slipping around.”