US Open champion Emma Raducanu has withdrawn from this week’s Australian Open warm-up tournament here having just come out of isolation after testing positive for Covid-19, she said on Saturday.

Raducanu, who became the first qualifier to win a grand slam when she triumphed at Flushing Meadows in September, had pulled out of the Mubadala World Tennis Championship exhibition event in Abu Dhabi last month after contracting the virus.

The 19-year-old was scheduled to headline one of the two women’s WTA 250 warm-up tournaments taking place at Melbourne Park — dubbed the ‘Melbourne Summer Set’ — from January 4-9.

“The timing to compete in the first Melbourne event this week is too soon for me, having just returned from isolation,” Raducanu was quoted as saying by the organisers.

The world No. 19 is scheduled to compete in the Sydney Classic before making her debut in the Australian Open to be held from January 17-30.

Queen’s award

Raducanu was honoured by Queen Elizabeth II in the British monarch’s annual New Year’s list, following the teenager’s breakthrough performance at Flushing Meadows.

She was made an MBE — or Member of the Order of the British Empire. “This year has been full of amazing surprises for me so to end 2021 with this appointment is very special,” she said.