Emma Raducanu WITHDRAWS from the French Open to focus on training to give herself ‘a chance to keep fit for the rest of the year’ – having only just returned from an eight-month absence in January

Emma Raducanu has pulled out of next week’s French Open, citing a desire to focus on training to ‘give myself a chance to keep fit for the rest of the year’.

The 21-year-old just missed out on automatic entry in Paris, but was on Monday due to begin an attempt to win her way in through qualifying, as she did for her US Open title in 2021.

But Raducanu’s name was withdrawn from the entry list on Sunday morning and she later explained: ‘It’s important for me to keep laying foundations and I will use the time to do a healthy block before the grass and subsequent hard-court seasons to give myself a chance to keep fit for the rest of the year.’

Raducanu has struggled since her fairytale of New York and only returned in January after eight months out following ankle and wrist surgeries.

Her withdrawal is a drab ending to a clay season which started promisingly for Raducanu, with four excellent wins on the bounce across the Billie Jean King Cup and Porsche Grand Prix. Then came a first-round defeat in Madrid last month, after which she declared herself ‘mentally and emotionally exhausted’. She has not been seen since.

She is relying on three players withdrawing before Monday in order to gain a place in the draw automatically

Raducanu knows her body and mind better than anyone, but it is an old sporting adage that the only way to prepare for the rigours of matches is matches themselves.

It is to be hoped she is not making the mistake of over- prioritising the grass-court season, with too many British players over the years guilty of putting all their strawberries in one basket.

Raducanu has not confirmed her schedule yet, but is likely to enter the Rothesay Open in Nottingham, which begins on June 8. 

If she produces a stellar season on home turf — she certainly has the ability to do so — then she and her team would feel justified in having skipped Roland Garros.

One British player who will be in Paris is Andy Murray, who on Monday begins his Geneva Open campaign. If the 37-year-old can get past Yannick Hanfmann — which is very far from certain — he would set up a reunion with his old foe and world No1 Novak Djokovic in the second round.

This week, Raducanu claimed that female tennis stars are ‘technically better’ than male players

The Brit, 21, feels that female players were underappreciated and hit out at the gender pay gap

Meanwhile, in Rome, German Alexander Zverev won the sixth Masters title of his career with a supreme serving performance against Chile’s unlikely finalist Nicolas Jarry.

The German landed 80 per cent of his first serves and won 95 per cent of those points in a 6-4, 7-5 victory. He is back up to world No4 and this is his first big title since suffering a horrendous ankle injury at the 2022 French Open.

With doubts over the form or fitness of the world’s top three Novak Djokovic, Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, this victory puts Zverev firmly into the bracket of possible winners at Roland Garros.

Any run towards the title in Paris would take place under a shadow, however, with Zverev’s hearing into domestic abuse allegations due to begin on May 31, day six of the tournament.

Raducanu famously won the US Open in remarkable fashion when she was just 18 back in 2021

In November, he was given a penalty order and fined by a German court after being accused of physically abusing his ex-girlfriend.

The 27-year-old denies the charge and has lodged an objection against the order, leading to this hearing.