Emma Raducanu makes ‘we’ll see’ admission after Queen’s Club final as next opponent confirmed
A couple of late withdrawals from the Nottingham Open have resulted in Emma Raducanu moving to the top half of the draw, but it remains to be seen if she will join the list of players to pull out.
Having accepted a wildcard into the main draw, Raducanu was initially in the bottom half of the draw and due to face a lucky loser or a qualifier in the first round.
However, top seed Iva Jovic withdrew from the tournament and the British No 1 has taken the American’s place in the draw, seeing her jump to the top spot on the drawsheet and getting a new opponent as she will now face former world No 1 Karolina Pliskova, who used her protected ranking to enter.
Pliskova reached the quarter-final at Queen’s Club last week, but Raducanu – of course – went two better as she finished runner-up to Donna Vekic in her third career final as her wait for a second title continues following her success at the 2021 US Open.
Raducanu has played four matches in the space of three days – including a quarter-final win over Kamilla Rakhimova and a semi-final victory over Jovic on Saturday – and the final proved to be one step too far as she lost 6-0, 7-6 (8-6) against Vekic.
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The 23-year-old’s opening match against Pliskova is due to take place on Tuesday, but she was non-committal when asked about playing at the WTA 250 tournament this week.
“Yeah, I don’t know right now. I pretty much came straight into here. I haven’t necessarily decided,” she said during her press conference at Queen’s Club.
“When does it start? Tuesday?”
When she was told Monday or Tuesday, she replied: “So tomorrow?”
Raducanu added: “We’ll see. We’ll see (laughter).”
The 23-year-old has surged 11 places to No 31 in the WTA Rankings with her run to the final in London, putting her on the cusp of a seeding for Wimbledon, but she could still lose out if she doesn’t play this week.
The cutoff date for Wimbledon seedings is next week as it will be based on the WTA Rankings 22 June.
Raducanu doesn’t have any point to defend at Nottingham, but she will drop 30 points next week as she reached the second round at the Eastbourne Open last year.
As things stand, she isn’t on the entry list for Eastbourne, but could still accept a late wildcard entry.
