Emma Raducanu set for daunting draw as Naomi Osaka prepares to form doubles dream team

Kevin Palmer
Emma Raducanu is on the comeback trail
Emma Raducanu is on the comeback trail

Wildcard entrants Naomi Osaka and Emma Raducanu will face a daunting task as they prepare to return to action in the WTA 500 tournament in Abu Dhabi, with some of the biggest names in the women’s game also in the draw.

Osaka looked in good form as she returned to the court after giving birth to her first child, with her defeat in Melbourne coming in a high-quality match against French star Caroline Garcia.

Now it has been confirmed that Osaka will not only play singles in Abu Dhabi but she will team up with Ons Jabeur in what is certain to be an exciting doubles pairing.

Meanwhile, 2021 US Open champion Raducanu made an encouraging return to WTA Tour action in New Zealand last month and then won a round at the Australian Open on her return to action after double wrist and ankle surgery last year.

Now Raducanu is preparing to take the next step in her comeback and she is certain to face a challenging task as she plays at the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open.

The top seed at the event will be world No 3 Elena Rybakina, while two-time Wimbledon finalist Jabeur will also be looking to kick-start her 2024 season.

Greece’s Maria Sakkari will be hopeful of making progress in Abu Dhabi, with Czech Republic star Barbora Krejcikova, Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia and former world No 4 Caroline Garcia also competing in Abu Dhabi.

There has been a boost in prize money for this event from 2023, with 500 WTA ranking points and $142,000 going to the eventual champion, which is $20,000 more than Belinda Bencic collected as she won the event last year. The runner-up will claim $87,655 and 325 points.

A lot of the attention in Abu Dhabi will fall on Osaka and Raducanu, with former British No 1 Laura Robson telling Tennis365 that she was impressed by the Brit as she took tentative steps back onto the tennis stage.

After witnessing the work she has been putting in at LTA’s National Tennis Centre (NTC) in London over the last few months, Robson suggests Raducanu has rediscovered some of the magic formula that fired her to US Open glory a little over two years ago.

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“Everyone who has been at the NTC over the last couple of months knows how hard Emma has been working on and off the court,” Robson told Tennis365.

“It has been a huge slog in the gym as well as trying to get that match fitness back, so you never know how it’s going to go when you go off to a tournament.

“So to see her play so aggressively, arguably the most aggressive I have seen her play since the US Open that she won, and to see the confidence that brought as she went after her shots without feeling pain was amazing.

“After you spend that much time off the court, you always think let’s get back to the basics, which is what I always used to think after months and months of rehab.

“You are like why did I pick up a racket, what did I enjoy doing… let me get back to that. Emma, from the looks of it, is hitting the ball big and from the age of 14, we knew she could do it. Just to see her enjoying her tennis again is huge.”

Raducanu’s current WTA ranking sits at a lowly No 295, but she has a change to rise up the ladder quickly as he status as a Grand Slam champion will allow her to play in tournaments that have big ranking points on offer.

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