Emma Raducanu on the brink of achieving her rankings goal – what comes next?
Emma Raducanu may have been forced to end her season early due to injury and illness, but the British No 1 looks set to achieve her rankings goal despite being forced to pull out of her last two tournaments.
The 22-year-old appeared to be suffering from an illness as she battled the hot conditions in the Asian swing of the WTA Tour so it was no surprise when she confirmed she would be taking a break from tennis after she lost against world No 230 Zhu Lin in Ningbo Open in China.
Despite that disappointment, Raducanu can look back on 2022 with a degree of pride as she is up to No 29 in the live WTA Rankings and looks set to head into 2026 with her target of being in the top 32 secured.
Raducanu spoke to Tennis365 at the Wuhan Open earlier this month and told us that being seeded in the opening Grand Slam of 2026 at the Australian Open is a big ambition.
“It is a target of mine, I think for the next few weeks, I think is to try and be seeded in Australia and do do my best to be in that position,” she told us.
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“I think the higher you can go, the better, maybe probability you have to make progress. But even still, you can be seeded and play one of these top players who are now seeded.
“It really depends on the luck of the draw. It’s just doing the best you can in that situation, giving yourself a better chance.
“I think I’ve just been happy with the improvements in the last few weeks I’ve made in my game, and I just want to keep going with that.”
There were some threats that she could be overhauled in the top 32 of the rankings if some of her rivals had picked up positive results in the final weeks of the season, but that seems unlikely to happen now.
So Raducanu will head into 2026 with renewed ambition and she will have a chance to boost her ranking further prior to the Australian Open.
Raducanu suffered some injury issues at the start of this year and that meant she headed into the Australian Open without playing any warm-up events.
She went on to perform well in Melbourne by picking with wins against Ekaterina Alexandrova and Amanda Anisimova, who have both gone on to enjoy stellar 2025 seasons.
Raducanu has played in the WTA 250 in Auckland, New Zealand, in the past, but she may be tempted to play in the higher-ranked WTA 500 events in Perth and Brisbane ahead of the Australian Open.
If she was to win some matches in either of those events, she could push her ranking into the mid-20s by the time she gets to Melbourne for the Aussie Open.
The next time we will see Raducanu on court is likely to be at the exhibition event she has lined up for December that will also feature Carlos Alcaraz.
The duo signed up for the post-season “A Racquet at The Rock” exhibition event on Sunday, December 7 in New Jersey, United States. Frances Tiafoe will take on Alcaraz in that event, while Raducanu will play Anisimova.
They are also set to play in an event in Miami the following day, with Joao Fonseca and Anisimova also playing that event.
