{"id":8407,"date":"2026-04-20T17:15:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T17:15:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/8407\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T17:15:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T17:15:06","slug":"madrid-open-2026-emma-raducanu-withdraws-ahead-of-clay-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/8407\/","title":{"rendered":"Madrid Open 2026: Emma Raducanu Withdraws Ahead of Clay Return"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Madrid Open is moving forward without Emma Raducanu, as the British star <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/tennis\/articles\/cwyx2d167n1o\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">withdrew from the tournament<\/a> ahead of the 2026 clay-court event.<\/p>\n<p>Raducanu&#8217;s decision comes as she continues to manage her early-season schedule, prioritizing long-term health after dealing with post-viral symptoms from an illness picked up during February&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/justwomenssports.com\/reads\/coco-gauff-upset-elisabetta-cocciaretto-qatar-open-2026\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Middle East swing<\/a>. The 2026 Madrid Open \u2014 a key WTA 1000 event leading into the Paris Open \u2014 had previously been part of her planned buildup.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, she will take more time before returning to competition. <\/p>\n<p>The withdrawal comes during a challenging stretch. Raducanu has dealt with injuries and illness over the past year, limiting her ability to string together consistent appearances. She enters this phase of the WTA season with a 7-7 record in 2026 and has not competed since early March&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/justwomenssports.com\/reads\/top-seeds-advance-to-2026-indian-wells-quarterfinals\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Indian Wells<\/a>, where she fell 6-1, 6-1 to Amanda Anisimova in the second round.<\/p>\n<p>Skipping <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wtatennis.com\/tournaments\/madrid-open\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Madrid<\/a> allows the 23-year-old a chance to reset physically while still targeting a return on clay.<\/p>\n<p>The world No. 27 has shown signs of progress when healthy. The <a href=\"https:\/\/justwomenssports.com\/reads\/wta-bbc-sports-personality-emma-raducanu-winner\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">2021 US Open champion<\/a> played four clay events last season, highlighted by a fourth-round run in Rome. But that stretch also included recurring back issues in Strasbourg and after Roland Garros, reinforcing the need for careful scheduling.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/justwomenssports.com\/reads\/nike-emma-raducanu-uniqlo-tennis-sponsorship-2026\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Raducan<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/justwomenssports.com\/reads\/nike-emma-raducanu-uniqlo-tennis-sponsorship-2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">u<\/a> is expected to return later in the spring, with the Italian Open and Roland Garros remaining key targets.<\/p>\n<p>If she doesn&#8217;t, her absence would stretch to nearly three months \u2014 leaving her short on match play heading into the grass-court season.<\/p>\n<p>How to Watch the 2026 Madrid Open This Week<\/p>\n<p>The Madrid Open starts on Tuesday, with Raducanu among several notable 2026 withdrawals, including Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic, Taylor Fritz, Sonay Kartal, and Barbora Krejcikova.<\/p>\n<p>Coverage of the tournament airs live on the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennischannel.com\/en-us\/tournaments\/ATP\/214\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Tennis Channel<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Madrid Open is moving forward without Emma Raducanu, as the British star withdrew from the tournament ahead&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8408,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[5076,82,4828,5070,5189],"class_list":["post-8407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-madrid","tag-emma-raducanu","tag-madrid","tag-madrid-open","tag-wta","tag-wta-1000"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}