The inside story behind Emma Raducanu’s sudden Italian Open withdrawal | Tennis | Sport

Emma Raducanu sent shockwaves around the Foro Italico on Tuesday evening as she announced her sudden withdrawal from the Italian Open less than an hour after completing her pre-tournament media duties. The British No. 1 completed interviews with TV, radio and written press, looking ahead to the tournament, before pulling out due to lingering post-viral symptoms from an illness that has been bothering her since February.

This is the fourth consecutive event Raducanu has withdrawn from after Miami, Linz and Madrid. But her decision to pull out of Rome came as a much bigger surprise, given that she travelled to Italy and practised on-site, and then spoke to the media about how positive she was feeling on court again.

However, Sky Sports presenter Karthi Gnanasegaram has now revealed that Raducanu sounded “hesitant” during their TV interview, which was recorded roughly an hour before she pulled out of the tournament.

“I think you sometimes get a sense of these things. I’ve done enough of these interviews with many different players over the years, where you’re sometimes wondering during the interview if everything is being said,” Gnanasegaram told viewers on Wednesday, the morning after Raducanu’s withdrawal.

“And there was a bit of a pause near the beginning of the interview where Emma Raducanu wanted to check something with the WTA representative that was with her. At these 1000-level interviews, there is always somebody from the WTA or the ATP with a player at every interview. Often, there’s an agent here. There was nobody from Emma’s team at all for the interview that we did.

“But I also stopped the interview a little bit later just to double-check whether there was anything that maybe I should know, and I had a little chat with Emma and the WTA afterwards, again, just to check what was happening, really, and if everything was okay.”

The world No. 30 still sounded positive while speaking to Gnanasegaram on Sky Sports, and when completing other media duties. But she soon confirmed that the post-viral illness meant she wasn’t able to compete again.

Gnanasegaram continued: “She said in that little clip that we saw there, she is feeling almost ready. She has been practising a lot, she’s even been doing doubles sessions on court and she was talking to me about playing on every single different court and how much she loved Pietrangeli, and how much she’s got the spark back for playing tennis, which I think she was suggesting she’d lost in recent weeks because she’s had so much trouble with her health and this viral illness.

“So she is enjoying playing tennis again. I specifically asked her if she is enjoying tennis at the moment, and she did say yes. And then after that interview with us, which I was a little concerned about, she then went to do her written press and to do radio interviews, and somebody from her team, Emma Stewart, did accompany her for those interviews after our interview. So she had somebody from the team and somebody from the WTA with her.

“And then it was quite a short while after those interviews had finished, so our interview was just before 6pm here in Rome, and then it was after 7pm when the statement came out saying she had withdrawn from the tournament due to the viral illness and not recovering in time. So that’s the idea of the timescale of what was happening. But in terms of our interview, there was a little bit of hesitancy on Emma Raducanu’s side, and also on my side.”

While Raducanu’s pre-tournament interviews and subsequent withdrawal raised some concerns, the good news is that the Brit is already eyeing a comeback. Raducanu is hoping to enter the WTA 500 event in Strasbourg, beginning on May 17, as a wildcard. It would give her the chance to get some matches in before the French Open.

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