Emma Raducanu’s hopes of building some momentum after a stuttering start to the season were shattered as she was forced to pull out of the Miami Open due to illness, with doubts over what comes next for the British No 1 rising once again.
Raducanu reached the quarter-finals in Miami last year and she would have been defending a hefty amount of ranking points in the second leg of the Sunshine Double.
Yet news that Raducanu has been ruled out of another tournament due to a physical issue is no longer a surprise, as she appears to have been struggling with her health for several months.
The 2021 US Open champion struggled with the heat in events in Asia last October and there was a suggestion that she was struggling with a chest infection last month.
She suggested he was ‘feeling better’ before losing 6-1, 6-1 against Amanda Amisiova in the WTA 1000 event at Indian Wells, but she would have been hopeful that conditions in Madrid would have suited her after last year’s run to the last eight.
News that Raducanu will not even play a single match in Miami will raise fresh questions over her health and physical conditioning, with this latest setback adding to several issues she has suffered over the last six months.
Gigi Salmon, as she suggested Raducanu’s health problems are as big a concern as her battles to take her game to the next level on the court.
“They said that she had a chest infection and I was working on the next two tournaments when she retired and then lost in the Middle East,” Salmon told Tennis365.