Emma Raducanu has added another tournament to her schedule as she looks ahead to the clay swing, her weakest surface. The British No. 1 has signed up for the WTA 500 event in Linz, which takes place from April 6 to 12. However, she has now effectively ruled herself out of Britain’s Billie Jean King Cup qualifier tie against Australia, which takes place that week.
The Upper Austria Ladies Linz has typically been staged on hard courts, but will switch to an indoor clay event this year. Raducanu is one of four former Grand Slam champions in the field, alongside Jelena Ostapenko, Barbora Krejcikova, and Marketa Vondrousova.
Filipino tennis sensation Alexandra Eala is set to make her tournament debut in Linz. Former world No. 1 Karolina Pliskova has also signed up for the tournament, as have former top-10ers Emma Navarro and Daria Kasatkina. Dayana Yastremka, Clara Tauson and Jaqueline Cristian join them in the draw.
Anastasia Potapova will compete in Linz for the first time since she switched nationalities from Russian to Austrian. The Austrian crowd will also see Lili Tagger, Julia Grabher and Sinja Kraus in action on home soil.
While Raducanu’s participation in the WTA 500 event is great news for tournament organisers in Linz, it means she has all but confirmed that she will not represent Britain in the BJK Cup – the ‘World Cup’ of women’s tennis – this April.
The British squad have been given a very awkward tie, facing Australia from April 10 to 11 on a hard court inside John Cain Arena, inside the Australian Open Melbourne Park facility. It’s a difficult trip to the other side of the world to compete on a hard court, just to fly back to Europe for the clay swing.
Raducanu has not represented the British BJK Cup team since the end of 2024. Last year, she skipped their qualifier ties against Germany and the Netherlands in April. In her absence, Katie Boulter, Sonay Kartal, and Jodie Burrage stepped up to book Britain’s place in the BJK Cup Finals.
And Raducanu has chosen a regular WTA Tour event – and the opportunity to earn all-important rankings points – over the team competition again. The British No. 1 last competed in Linz back in 2021, when it was a hard-court tournament staged in November. She lost to Xinyu Wang in the first round.