Emma Raducanu has surprisingly withdrawn from the 2024 Roland Garros women's qualifying tournament and is reportedly not practicing on clay.
The French Open qualifying tournament will determine the 16 men and women who will navigate three rounds to reach the main draw of the second Grand Slam of the season. It was scheduled to start on Monday, May 20th.
Because she is currently ranked outside the world's Top 200, Raducanu initially signed up for the clay-court Grand Slam with a special ranking of No. 103, which she applied for while on an injury hiatus last season.
However, she hasn't met the cut-off entry mark for a main draw spot with a three-digit SR, and her best bet was to wait for a wild card. But when the tournament announced its list of wild card entrants for this year, six were granted to home players.
The remaining two were given to Ajla Tomljanovic and Sachia Vickery. Therefore, Raducanu was automatically entered into the Roland Garros qualifying field. She withdrew from next week's Strasbourg Open, where she was offered a main draw wild card.
It was the clearest hint that she was set to travel to Paris to compete in the qualifying tournament, which would have been a first since the 2021 US Open, which she sensationally won.
But on Sunday, her name was scratched out from the qualifying tournament, although she now remains third on the alternate list. It means three players must withdraw from the main draw before the qualifying tournament begins for Raducanu to directly earn a main draw berth.
In the unlikely three players withdraw, the 21-year-old is not expected to play at Roland Garros, according to the Times UK. The former US Open champion is reportedly training in London on hard courts.
Raducanu has not played since losing in the first round to Maria Carle at the Madrid Open. Overall, she is 9-7 in 16 matches across levels this year and has been advised to "wipe the slate" clean and make better schedule decisions.
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