Raducanu may have given up on playing the French Open.
Emma Raducanu won’t be playing in the French Open qualifying after all and now there are legitimate fears that the Briton’s clay season has ended.
After missing out on the French Open main draw cut-off, Raducanu was certainly hoping to get a main draw wildcard into the tournament. But when the wildcard selection was announced on Tuesday, Raducanu was nowhere to be found on the list.
Then, Raducanu was left with only two options at reaching the French Open main draw – either by having enough players withdraw for her to make it directly or earning a spot through the qualifying.
On Friday, Raducanu received a positive update after she learned that she needed three more player withdrawals. But now, Raducanu still needs that number of withdrawals and since she is out of the qualifying, this may be a big indication that she has given up on playing the French Open.
The French Open qualifying is slated to start on Monday.
Raducanu started her clay season in a very promising way
Although the Billie Jean King Cup weekend didn’t count as the clay season, Raducanu played two matches on clay there and won against Caroline Garcia and Diane Parry. Then in the next two weeks, Raducanu was also a Stuttgart quarterfinalist before losing in the Madrid first round after battling tiredness and exhaustion throughout the match.
“I would say the last few weeks have been a lot. Starting from Billie Jean King Cup, I haven’t stopped,” Raducanu said after exiting Madrid.
“It’s just been back-to-back and I was very happy being able to help carry the team in BJK Cup and then straight to Stuttgart with no rest and then straight here and trying to adapt to the conditions which are very different because it’s outdoors and I was playing indoors for the last month. Many factors that have made it very difficult to fully compete today but overall I’ve been playing pretty well.”
Raducanu said after Madrid she was planning on resting a bit but hardly anyone could predict she would still be out of action.
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