As the wildcards dry up for Emma Raducanu, the questions over what comes next for the former US Open champion now need to be asked.
Raducanu’s decision to skip the Olympic Games and play in a WTA 500 tournament in Washington proved to be a sound decision after she made it through the quarterfinals and had chances to beat eventual champion Paula Badosa in a high-quality last-eight encounter.
That run propelled Raducanu up the WTA Rankings once again after an encouraging run of form on British grass courts in June and July fired her back into the top 100 for the first time in over a year.
A run to the semi-finals of the Nottingham Open, the quarterfinals at the Eastbourne International and the last-16 at Wimbledon suggested Raducanu is getting back to somewhere near her best form after she underwent three different surgeries that ruled her out of the second half of 2023.
Yet a couple of incidents in the opening half of this year may have dented Raducanu’s hopes of continuing to claim wildcards into events she doesn’t qualify for on her ranking alone.
Raducanu’s status as a former Grand Slam champion pushes her claims for wildcards, but she was overlooked by tournament committees overseeing the W1000 events in Toronto and Cincinnati.
That may be due, in part, to Raducanu’s decision to pull out of the Miami Open in March after she was handed a wildcard into an event that is heavily influenced by her management team at IMG.
The Brit then got a wildcard into the Madrid Open and turned in a limp performance as she lost 6-2, 6-2 against Argentina’s Maria Lourdes Carle.
Raducanu suggested her poor performance in Madrid was down to fatigue, yet tournament directors around the world would have noted that display as they constantly assess who deserves to be handed prized tickets to play in their events.
There is no doubt that a fully fit and motivated Raducanu is a big draw in any WTA Tour event, but there may now be a reluctance to hand the 2021 US Open winner a wildcard if there are doubts after the events in Miami and Madrid.
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Raducanu could have tried to qualify for Toronto, but it appears she is not keen to play in preliminary competitions after she pulled out of the French Open qualifying last May.
Cynics suggested that may have been due to the prospect of an early defeat in qualifying not being well received by her sponsors, but it’s unclear why the 21-year-old has opted against following the route she took on her way to winning the US Open three years ago.
The qualifying draw for the WTA 1000 event at Cincinnati does not include Raducanu’s name and she could now look to play in the WTA 250 event in Cleveland the week before the US Open.
Raducanu will be back at Flushing Meadows to play at the final Grand Slam of the year later this month courtesy of an improved ranking from her wins on grass courts during the British summer.
Yet if Raducanu is not going to play in qualifying events that would give her a chance to improve her ranking, she may struggle to make the leaps forward she is hoping for over the next few months.
All players have to play at a level they may feel is below them if they are on the way back from an injury lay-off, but Raducanu doesn’t appear to be willing to do that at the moment and that decision means she will have very little match practice on American hard courts ahead of the US Open.
Unless she has a deep run and improves her ranking substantially at the US Open, it seems she will be relying on wildcards to get into the top tier tournaments she wants to play in.
Her apparent refusal to play in qualifying events is a gamble that has already backfired as she is currently on the sidelines while the tennis world continues in her absence.
So she will arrive at the US Open later this month with very few matches under her belt and hoping to find her form in the heat of a Grand Slam tournament once again.
An early exit in New York may leave Raducanu with big decisions to make as she needs to play matches to gain ranking points and if she has decided qualifying competitions will not be on her agenda, her future in tennis will be uncertain.
Becoming a part-time tennis player who only plays in events where wildcards are offered is not a viable long-term approach for Raducanu and the tennis world may leave her behind unless she begins to play more tournaments.
