Emma Raducanu ‘pretty happy’ with her level as Cincinnati qualifying decision explained
Emma Raducanu opted against entering the qualifying tournament at the Cincinnati Open as her “body is feeling it a touch”, according to Naomi Cavaday, the sister of Raducanu’s coach.
Former US Open winner Raducanu has not played competitive tennis since losing in the quarter-final in Washington DC on August 2 as she failed to gain direct entries into the main draws of the Canadian Open and Cincinnati Open while she was also overlooked for wildcards.
She had the option of playing qualifiers for this week’s WTA 1000 event in Cincinnati as her ranking of No 93 – which was taken two weeks before the tournament – was below the cutoff.
Raducanu, though, skipped qualifying and instead returned to London with her decision causing a bit of a stir as many believe she will be short of match practice for the US Open, which gets underway on August 26.
Naomi Cavaday – sister of Nick Cavaday, who has coached Raducanu since the start of this year – was on co-commentating duties with Laura Robson for the Cincinnati Open when the latter said: “I was going to ask you actually, with your brother being her coach, why was [there] the decision to not play qualifying?”
Naomi replied: “I think viewing it as extra matches, she got some wins in Washington, pretty happy with the level. Body [is] feeling it a touch, trying to keep that managed.”
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Raducanu missed the second half of the 2023 tennis season as she underwent surgery on both her wrists and one ankle.
After returning at the start of this campaign, she played the hard-court season before skipping the bulk of the clay-court swing – including French Open qualifying – in order to stay healthy for the grass-court campaign.
After some good results on grass, which featured a run to the fourth round at Wimbledon, Raducanu then opted against playing at the Olympics as she wanted to focus on the North American hard-court swing.
But she has played only one tournament and Robson admitted it is difficult to strike a balance, saying: “It’s a tough one because you want to keep the momentum.”
Cavaday answered: “I mean, I think if she’d have had a wildcard into the main draw, she would have considered playing. I’m sure she considered playing in qualifying as well.”
She then added: “I’m not privy to the scheduling decisions I’m afraid.” Robson then joked: “I thought you were going to give us some goss!”
Raducanu could still get some matches under her belt ahead of the US Open as the Monterrey Open in Mexico and the Tennis in the Land in Cleveland will be staged next week, but the 21-year-old has kept mum about her schedule.
