Emma Raducanu has withdrawn from the Madrid Open hours before her first-round match due to a right-hand injury.
The British No 1 and 2021 US Open champion will drop out of the WTA’s top 100 in the world after the tournament as a result of her withdrawal.
Raducanu was due to play Bulgarian Viktoriya Tomova in the opening round of her second clay-court tournament as she builds up to the French Open in just over a month, starting on May 28.
The 20-year-old suffered a one-sided straight-sets defeat to Jelena Ostapenko in the first round of the Stuttgart Open last week, with the Latvian prevailing 6-2 6-1 inside an hour.
It was Raducanu’s fifth defeat of 2023, following on from another first-round exit to Bianca Andreescu at the Miami Open at the end of March.
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Emma Raducanu says she does not think she has hit rock bottom after struggling for form since winning the 2021 US Open
After her defeat to Andreescu, Raducanu had said she will seek fresh advice on how to fix the wrist problems that have hampered her this season.
“It’s something I’ve been managing for some time,” she said. “I just need to review after this tournament really and figure out what my next steps are. I’m able to play in the short term but the current solutions aren’t very viable long term.
“I feel like this year has been difficult in the sense that I have been managing a few existing injuries and that has been annoying and frustrating because I’ve been working as best as I can.”
Raducanu made herself “unavailable” for Great Britain’s Billie Jean King Cup clash with France in April, with a view to having the best preparation possible for the clay-court season.
