Raducanu withdraws from Madrid Open as illness absence nears two months
Emma Raducanu will extend her absence from the WTA Tour because of a viral illness to two months after she withdrew from the coming week’s Madrid Open.Raducanu has not competed since a 6-1, 6-1 loss to Amanda Anisimova in the second round of the Indian Wells Open on 8 March.She briefly trained on-site at the Miami Open just over a week later before citing lingering symptoms from an earlier viral illness as the reason for her withdrawal.Raducanu had been affected by a viral illness during the Middle East swing in February, which she said had contributed to her poor performances on the court.In the aftermath of her withdrawal from the Miami Open, Raducanu took a considerable amount of time off from training.
She only recently returned to practice and she now must build up her match fitness again.According to her representatives, Raducanu is hopeful of competing at the Italian Open in Rome, which begins in two weeks on 4 May.Should she decide to compete there, her absence from most of the clay-court season will make the challenge of performing on her least favourite surface even tougher.This layoff is merely the latest disruption in Raducanu’s turbulent career.The second half of her hopeful 2025 season was by far the most stable period of her career, with the Briton competing regularly on the tour, performing well enough and returning to the top 30.
However, the first fourth months of 2026 have been a disaster.A foot injury suffered at the end of last season meant Raducanu began training at full intensity only a couple of days before her first match of the season, a loss to Maria Sakkari at the United Cup in Perth on 5 January.Her one positive week came in her run to the final of the WTA 250 event in Cluj, Romania, her father’s original country, as the No 1 seed.It is the only time Raducanu has won consecutive matches since the US Open in August and the Briton is a tepid 7-7 in 2026.Raducanu started the season having made technical changes to her forehand, which performed poorly throughout her time in Australia.
After indicating that she would revert to her old technique, Raducanu opted to end her six-month coaching partnership with Francisco Roig.Roig has actually worked with two players since Raducanu last competed, with the Spaniard breaking off his coaching partnership with Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard in favour of working with the six-time grand slam champion Iga Swiatek.The Madrid Open will be without a number of men’s stars this week.Carlos Alcaraz was forced to withdraw from his home Masters 1000 tournament after suffering a wrist injury this week at the Barcelona Open and Novak Djokovic, who has competed just once since his run to the Australian Open final, also chose to withdraw from the tournament because of injury.Meanwhile, it is unclear whether Jack Draper, a finalist at the Caja Mágica last year, will be back in Madrid after retiring from his first-round match in Barcelona.
Meanwhile, Elena Rybakina had her eyes on the prize, literally, as she overpowered Karolina Muchova 7-5, 6-1 to win the Stuttgart Open on Sunday and drive away with a Porsche car – for the second time in her career.While the world No 2 claimed her second title of the season, it was the tournament’s traditional Porsche award that truly captured the top seed’s attention more than the silverware itself.The first Porsche she won in 2024 had given her a push to get a driver’s licence last year and she was all smiles when she drove her newly won second sports car down the ramp before parking it on the red clay of the arena.Victory elevated Rybakina into exclusive company, making her just the fourth active player to win at least five WTA-level titles on multiple surfaces, joining an elite group that includes Venus Williams, Elina Svitolina and Swiatek.“It’s an amazing tournament, we love coming back here … It really feels like home and you just want to come back every year,” Rybakina said.
“Super happy for the second win here in Stuttgart and this beautiful car,”
Ministers urged to share Mandelson vetting files with intelligence committee
Ministers are under growing pressure to share the documents from Peter Mandelson’s vetting process with the parliamentary committee tasked with deciding if they should be made public.In February, MPs passed a binding parliamentary motion, known as a humble address, requiring the government to publish “all papers” relating to Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to the US.The motion made an exemption for documents “prejudicial to UK national security or international relations”, which would be given to the Intelligence and Security Committee, a trusted nine-person group of MPs and peers who oversee the activities of the intelligence agencies.Officials within the Cabinet Office have discussed for weeks how to comply with the terms of the humble address because it would be “unprecedented” to disclose details of Mandelson’s developed vetting process.As the Guardian revealed last week, United Kingdom Security Vetting (UKSV) decided that Mandelson should be denied clearance but that advice was overruled by the Foreign Office so he could take up his post
UK seeks EU deals on steel and EVs in push for closer economic ties
Downing Street hopes to secure deals on steel and electric cars with the EU as it seeks to upgrade the post-Brexit economic relationship.Amid economic uncertainty caused by the conflict in the Middle East and strains in relations with the US, Keir Starmer is seeking closer economic ties with the EU.The UK wants agreements on steel and electric vehicles to avoid British industry being disadvantaged by scheduled changes to trade rules.The EU this week agreed trade restrictions on steel imports in response to a glut of artificially cheap Chinese imports that have depressed global prices. The UK, which is one of the EU’s biggest markets, is not the target, but will be hurt by the higher tariffs, which come into force on 1 July
Starmer would have blocked Mandelson appointment if he had known about failed vetting, ministers say – as it happened
Keir Starmer would have withdrawn Peter Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to the US if he had known he had not passed security vetting, Liz Kendall said, even if it was close to Donald Trump’s inauguration.Kendall told Laura Kuenssberg on BBC One that Starmer would have rescinded the job offer if he had been told – regardless of the timing ahead of Trump taking up the presidency.She said: “If the prime minister had known that UK security vetting had not cleared him, the appointment would have been withdrawn.“It would’t have mattered how close that was to the president’s inauguration or any of that, I believe that because there is no way that the prime minister would have continued with it, had he known the facts that he now knows.”That’s all for today, as the saga from Peter Mandelson’s appointment continues and piles more pressure on Keir Starmer
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MoD has lost track of veterans on recall list, says defence adviser
The Ministry of Defence has lost track of military veterans they intend to recall at a time of national danger, according to a key government adviser.About 95,000 former soldiers and officers are in the strategic reserve but it is claimed that officials have failed to maintain a full record of their contact details.George Robertson, a former defence secretary and head of Nato who co-authored last year’s strategic defence review (SDR), made the claim at an event in Salisbury, Wiltshire.“What the review talks about is having the strategic reserve, that is, all of the people in this room who’ve been in the forces who have got a continuing obligation,” the Labour peer said. “But the Ministry of Defence at the present moment doesn’t even know where most of them are
‘Things could go backwards’: Kezia Dugdale on safety, LGBTQ+ rights and the future of Stonewall
Kezia Dugdale, the former leader of Scottish Labour, says she is now “quite scared” as a lesbian in Britain and has started to feel nervous holding her wife’s hand in public.Speaking to the Guardian in Edinburgh on the announcement of her appointment as the chair of Stonewall, the LGBTQ+ charity, she said it was “completely possible” gay rights in the UK could be eroded with the rise of rightwing populism.Equal marriage could not be taken for granted, she cautioned. “I don’t think it is an implausible argument now in the way that it maybe was five years ago. My rationale for that is: look at Italy, for example, where you see a rollback of rights for LGBT people
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