As the players settled in Madrid for the fourth WTA 1000 event of the season, one competitor was extremely unsettled. In her pre-tournament press conference on Tuesday, Emma Raducanu entered the room determined to keep every response as short as possible. One-word answers were preferred. Her day’s work came in at 58 words. Eventually, the moderator recognised the futility of continuing and aborted her media briefing.
The spectacle was concerning. The past 18 months have been difficult for various reasons and Britain’s young hope has become increasingly guarded, but the positive perspective she had tried to exude in public for much of this period was gone.
