Emma Raducanu set for fresh rankings blow amid uncertainty over her future

Tennis News

Tennis365.com
May 26, 2023

Emma Raducanu will miss the upcoming French Open and that could see her surrender one of the last titles she is hanging on to.

Raducanu is recovering from surgery on both wrists and her ankle, with those injuries putting a huge cloud over her future in the game.

The 2021 US Open champion has slipped out of the top 100 of the WTA rankings after a year destroyed by injuries and now she could be set to be dethroned as British No 1.

Raducanu missed much of last summer’s grass court season due to injury, but she did manage to get onto court at Wimbledon to win a match against Alison Van Uytvanck.

Those rankings points will drop off her total at the start of July and by then, she may have been overtaken as British No 1 by Jodie Burrage.

The 23-year-old has been in fine form this season and won the biggest title of her career as she lifted the ITF World Tennis Tour in Croissy-Beaubourg in April.

Now she will be looking to shine on British grass courts this summer and has been confirmed as an entrant for the LTA’s Surbiton Trophy that gets underway on June 5th.

Burrage reached the semi-finals in the W100 event in Surbiton last year and also performed well in the ITF event at Ilkley, reaching the final.

She then recorded the best win of her career as she beat Spain’s Paula Badosa at the Rothesay International Eastbourne last June, so she will have plenty of points to defend over the next month.

Yet Burrage will also be competing in WTA Tour events that will offer the potential for big ranking points, with wild cards on offer to British players over the next few weeks.

If she was to match her run at Surbiton and perform well at the Nottingham Open, Birmingham Classic and in the Eastborune International events, Burrage could be heading into Wimbledon as the British No 1.

She would then have a chance to build on that status at the All England Club, with British women’s tennis in need of a lift after a challenging 2023.

There will be no British players in the draw for the French Open women’s event fter Katie Boulter, Harriet Dart and Fran Jones exited in the second qualifying round.
Boulter produced a gutsy display against Ashlyn Krueger but failed to serve out for the match as she was beaten in the second qualifying round for the French Open.

On a difficult day for Britons attempting to progress into the Roland Garros main draw, Boulter joined Harriet Dart, Fran Jones, Liam Broady, Ryan Peniston and Jan Choinski in losing in Paris.

It means only Cameron Norrie, Dan Evans, Kyle Edmund and Jack Draper will fly the flag for Britain in the second major of 2023, following Andy Murray’s withdrawal and Emma Raducanu’s recent fitness woes.

There are no updates on when Raducanu may attempt to return to the game, but her absence has left a major hole in the British ranks heading into the heart of the season:

Emma Raducanu