Emma Raducanu is set to fall out of the world’s top 100 after withdrawing from the Madrid Open with an injury to her right hand just hours before her scheduled first-round match against Bulgaria’s Viktoriya Tomova.
The news, announced by the tournament on social media on Wednesday morning, offers some context to Raducanu’s unforthcoming performance at a press conference the previous day, when she offered reporters just 58 words in response to 16 questions.
It is understood that the former US Open champion is suffering from another flare-up of the wrist injury that has troubled her since late last season, and which recurred last month in Indian Wells, where she nonetheless advanced to the last 16 before losing to world No 1 Iga Swiatek.
Raducanu has suffered first-round defeats to Bianca Andreescu in Miami and Jelena Ostapenko in Stuttgart since then, and the 20-year-old needed a good showing in Madrid to protect the 120 ranking points she earned for reaching the third round last year. Victory over Tomova would have preserved her top-100 status for the time being and allowed her to advance to a second-round meeting with Swiatek. Instead, Raducanu will now fall from her current position of 85th to at least 101 when the next ranking list is published.
The British No 1 gave little away when asked about her wrist on the eve of the event. “It’s OK,” she said, before adding: “We’re managing it,” in reply to a follow-up question.
Raducanu’s pre-tournament media duties ended abruptly after less than three minutes when a WTA media official stepped in. “Let’s just leave it there,” said the moderator after Raducanu offered a terse denial when asked if she was being intentionally unobliging.
Raducanu is next scheduled to compete in Rome next month, where she would need to acquire points in order to avoid needing a wild card to enter Wimbledon.