Emma Raducanu may struggle to achieve one of her tennis goals after cutting her WTA season short. The British star ended her campaign early after a gruelling match at the Wuhan Open.
Raducanu has endured a mixed bag this year. She struggled with the heat in China earlier this month and retired during the second set of her clash with Ann Li in Wuhan. The decision was made to end her season early and she is missing the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo and the Hong Kong Open. However, cutting her campaign short could have scuppered her chances of achieving a long-term goal: being seeded for the Australian Open.
“My goal for the coming weeks is to try to be seeded at the Australian Open,” Raducanu stated in Wuhan before her unfortunate retirement in the first round.
“I will do everything I can to achieve that. The higher my ranking is, the better. You might have better chances of advancing in the draw, but you can still be seeded and play against the best players quite early in tournaments. There’s also an element of luck,” Raducanu continued. “But you have to do your best in all situations to increase your chances.”
To be the first to receive the latest tennis news, join our WhatsApp community or tennis newsletter
With Raducanu done for the year she currently sits at 28th in the WTA rankings. To be seeded for the first Grand Slam of the new season in Melbourne, players must rank inside the top 32. That puts her in relatively good shape, but since she can no longer gain ranking points, she could find herself in a powerless predicament.
Those around her in the rankings could pile on the pressure with some good results to end the year. Stars such as Maya Joint, Sofia Kenin, Anna Kalinskaya and McCartney Kessler are all hovering around Raducanu with a few tournaments left.
If multiple players improve and pull off deep runs in competitions, Raducanu could find herself tumbling down the rankings with no ability to bite back. However, it must be said that some of those just outside the top 32 who would need to improve past her have little chance of doing so. World No. 34 Barbora Krejcikova called her season early too thanks to some injury troubles.
World No. 33 and 2023 Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova also suffered an injury in Tokyo this week and has made the difficult decision to end her campaign now.
She took to Instagram and announced: “Honestly. Probably the hardest one of my life. Not just because of the pain, but because keeping your head up when things don’t go your way is a whole different sport.
“I’ve learned that being healthy — like really healthy — is the most important thing. Body, mind, everything. So yeah, ending the season in pain again wasn’t the plan, but that’s life. I’m so thankful for the people around me who kept me grounded, who supported me on the worst days and made me smile on the good ones. You know who you are.”