Italian Open: Emma Raducanu withdraws with post-viral illness shortly after media conference

Raducanu last played a match in Indian Wells on 8 March, and has since missed the Miami Open and clay-court events in Linz and Madrid because of her post-viral symptoms.

However, the 23-year-old has been practising in recent weeks at the National Tennis Centre in London and at the Ferrer Academy near Benidorm.

She had been accompanied in Rome by Jane O’Donoghue, a friend and former LTA national coach, and physio Emma Stewart, who perhaps tellingly was with Raducanu during her interviews.

“Coming on to the clay courts is much more physically demanding than potentially other surfaces but I want to come back 100% ready,” Raducanu said.

“I have been building my way up slowly and looking forward to when I get out there.”

We now know she will not be getting out there in Rome this week.

Raducanu has one last chance to play a WTA event before the French Open in either Strasbourg or Rabat in two weeks’ time.

But if she misses the entire clay swing, then Raducanu will have been absent for three months by the time the grass-court season begins.

Even if Raducanu is fit to compete at Roland Garros, which begins on 24 May, she will do so as an unseeded player.

The 2021 US Open champion is currently 30 in the world rankings but only 32 players are seeded – and she will drop several places now she is no longer able to defend the points she earned from a fourth-round run in Rome last year.