Injury has again stopped Emma Raducanu’s momentum in its tracks: this time, due to sprained ligaments in her left foot.
The Brit, who had a medical timeout in her second-round win at the Hana Bank Korea Open in Seoul last week before retiring after losing the first set of her quarterfinal match against Daria Kasatkina, announced the medical update on social media on Monday, as well as her withdrawal from the WTA 1000 in Beijing that begins Tuesday.
Raducanu was placed in the China Open draw, and had been projected to face Olympic champion and No. 5 seed Zheng Qinwen in the second round, before she withdrew.
“I hope to be back as soon as I can,” the 2021 US Open champion wrote in a statement posted on X, formerly Twitter.
Raducanu had previously expressed high hopes for a portion of the season in which she says she thrives, recently telling WTA Insider’s Courtney Nguyen that she sought to “prioritize” the Asian swing this year, and was looking forward to playing in China, where her mother is from and grandmother still lives, for the first time.
“I stacked the year on the backend heavy, because I’m excited. I thrive in Asia. It’s where I truly feel like home,” she said, “so I’m buzzing for that trip even though it’s at the end of the year. I’m looking forward to going out there and trying to take it.”
