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Emma Raducanu has withdrawn from the Italian Open just minutes after conducting a press conference expressing her excitement for the upcoming WTA 1000 event. The Brit hasn't played a competitive match since early March at Indian Wells, with Rome now the fourth consecutive tournament she's pulled out of.

Raducanu is yet to compete on clay this season and will have just one more opportunity to do so before the upcoming French Open, which gets underway later this month. She did play in Strasbourg before Roland-Garros last year, but it's another blow to what's been a dismal 2026 for Raducanu.

Raducanu's return was expected to come in Rome, where she'd been given a bye into the second round. But just minutes after conducting a press conference, confirmation that Raducanu had withdrawn from the tournament arrived, with illness having been cited as the reason why.

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