Annabel Croft reacts to Emma Raducanu’s withdrawal from the US Open
Emma Raducanu has confirmed that she will not play the US Open as she continues to suffer with the stress fracture that kept her out of Wimbledon.
In a statement given to Sky Sports, Raducanu’s team revealed: “After latest consultation with her team, Emma will have to miss the US Open.
“While she is working hard to rehab her stress fracture, given the nature of the injury, it needs time to heal. She is sad to be missing a tournament that is so special to her.”
It’s another major blow for Raducanu, who has missed most of the 2026 season at this point. The star didn’t play a single event on the clay court swing and her run to the Queen’s final was her only grass court tournament.
Speaking on Sky Sports Tennis, Annabel Croft said: “It feels as if she’s been unbelievably unluck with the injury problems she’s faced throughout the course of her career. Don’t forget she’s had wrist surgery, feet problems, and now this stress fracture.
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“And, you know there are so many injuries out there on the Tour, it seems like she never gets a clear run where she’s able to really go for it with her tennis, and her body, and her mind injury free. And just keep the momentum going because we’re all so excited with what she did at Queen’s Club, where she reached the final there just ahead of Wimbledon, where everyone is going ‘Wow’.
“She really ignited her tennis again and thing were really starting to look up, but this is just a major setback. It’s a tournament that is so special to her, that’s where she’s had her greatest success, a former US Open champion, and I’ve seen lots of pictures of her posting the boot on her leg, trying to serve still, keeping her racket going.
“Showing everybody that she’s doing everything she can, but clearly it’s not healed up and you need to be fully fit to play these tournaments. It wouldn’t be a surprise if she made that decision [to end her season now] and probably that wouldn’t be such a bad decision to take because you can fully heal, rest up, get as much treatment as possible, and then come out fully fit and raring to go at the start of next year.
“But the business side of tennis, I’m sure there’s a lot of enticing things coming her way down in Asia where she will want to play her best tennis there and she’ll be very much in demand.”
Croft was then asked whether she thought Raducanu would now forgo the rest of the season and miss the Asian swing at the backend of 2026.
“Who knows, maybe if there’s a worry about the ranking drop with so many points to defend, potentially that ranking could plummet. Although, she might benefit from the protected ranking.
“These factors have to be considered, but at the end of the day, your health is your wealth and that’s the most important factor. The problem for all of these players facing injury problems, and we see it for all those years with Juan Martin del Potro, everyone’s so worried about Alcaraz because it’s similar.
“Every time you go out there to practice, and I think Jack Draper’s alluded to this, you don’t know how much to push yourself because an injury that has been a problem, needs to be loaded up in training to see how far you can load it up before playing professional tennis matches.
“As we know on the Tour it’s so demanding what is required from all of these players and it’s relentless. If you get through one match, there’s one that’s coming a day later. Injuries can get into a players head mentally as much as anything, so psychologically you’re thinking ‘Can I play? Can I push up on my leg? Can I push off to serve?’ How much do all these factors come in emotionally. It’s very difficult, very tough.”
Croft also spoke about the details of Raducanu’s injury, which she believes is an outlier in the It’s quite an unusual injury actually. I’ve had calf muscle injuries, which were not nice at all and the minute you push off, you tweak it, but a shin.
“And stress fractures are always dangerous. Whatever you do, you do not want to weaken it anymore and cause anymore problems, so it doesn’t become a long-term injury. But you don’t hear too many stress fractures in the shin actually. It seems quite an unusual injury.
“One thing that I’ve always thought about Raducanu, particularly when we saw her at Queen’s on the grass, where she played such beautiful tennis. She’s very light on her feet.
“Movement for her has always been one of her strengths. She’s such a great athlete, she moves around the ball. She’s light on her feet and gets into great positions, where she never looks off balance. Movement will be part of a major strength on what she brings out on the court. That needs to be at 100%.”
Raducanu currently sits at world No 49 in the WTA Tour rankings and that is only set to get worse when she loses the points she acquired in Cincinnati and the US Open last season.
If the British star misses any more key events on the WTA Tour calendar, she could be on the cusp of falling out of the top 100 altogether.
