British tennis star Emma Raducanu says she is feeling “optimistic” as she approaches an Italian Open campaign that she feels offers a “fresh start”.
The 22-year-old arrives in Rome looking to bounce back from her second-round exit at last month’s Madrid Open, and she will face a qualifier in the first round.
And the former US Open champion will face world No 20 Ekaterina Alexandrova if she progresses in what is her second career appearance at the Italian Open.
Ahead of the tournament, which begins in earnest on 6 May, Raducanu told Sky Sports that she felt excited ahead of making a fresh start.
"It is exciting, it does feel like a bit of a fresh start with the way I am approaching everything, with the people I have around, with my mindset and outlook,” she said.
"I feel more optimistic, I feel pretty positive about things going forward. I'm just taking it day by day and trying to stay consistent,” she added.
Before Madrid, the British number two had taken a brief break from the WTA Tour after a run to the quarter-finals at the Miami Open in March, opting to carry out a training block with trainer Mark Petchey.
And Raducanu says that she has made “certain tweaks” to her regime as the pair want to “work on doing things differently to try and bridge the gap between where I am now and where I want to be”.
Raducanu will be leading GB hopes in Rome along with British No 1 Katie Boulter and No 3 Sonay Kartal, with Raducanu in first-round action on either Wednesday or Thursday.
Boulter is already scheduled to face Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in a first-round tie on Wednesday, while Kartal takes on Australia’s Kimberly Birrell on Tuesday.
