{"id":119231,"date":"2025-09-06T19:33:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T19:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/119231\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T19:33:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T19:33:10","slug":"emma-raducanu-drops-out-of-great-britain-team-to-focus-on-ranking-points","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/119231\/","title":{"rendered":"Emma Raducanu drops out of Great Britain team to focus on ranking points"},"content":{"rendered":"

Emma Raducanu has taken the sudden decision to withdraw from Great Britain\u2019s bid for a first Billie Jean King Cup Finals title this month, instead deciding to accept a wild card for an individual WTA tournament in Korea.<\/p>\n

More than six weeks after Raducanu was publicly announced in the team by the LTA, she informed the British captain, Anne Keothavong, on Friday afternoon that she has changed her mind. The event starts on September 16 in Shenzhen, China, with Britain due to play a quarter-final against Japan on September 18 before a potential semi-final and final later that week.<\/p>\n

It is the second time this year that the 22-year-old British No1 has opted against playing for her country. In April she skipped the qualifiers to focus on a clay-court training block, but Britain still managed to progress to the finals with victories over Germany and the Netherlands.<\/p>\n

\"Great<\/p>\n

Boulter, left, is expected to step up to No1 for Keothavong\u2019s team in Shenzhen<\/p>\n

NATHAN STIRK\/GETTY IMAGES FOR LTA<\/p>\n

Raducanu\u2019s team indicated that the latest decision has been made to prioritise the WTA Tour schedule, which offers world-ranking points unlike the Billie Jean King Cup. Another factor is the chance to spend more time on the road with her new coach, Francisco Roig, in an effort to continue her momentum and develop her game for the long term.<\/p>\n

The Korea Open takes place in Seoul between September 15-21, and features the Wimbledon champion Iga Swiatek and US Open finalist Amanda Anisimova in the field. Although Raducanu\u2019s present world ranking of No36 would have been high enough to gain a direct spot in the main draw, she did not submit an entry before the deadline of August 18. This means that a wild card was necessary to join the tournament list at short notice.<\/p>\n

Raducanu has played well in Seoul in previous years, reaching the semi-finals in 2022 and the quarter-finals in 2024. With 108 points to defend from her run last year, she could potentially have dropped two or three spots in the rankings had she stuck with her original decision to play in the Billie Jean King Cup, although she has no further points to defend for the remainder of the season.<\/p>\n

Raducanu recently referenced the importance of climbing into the world\u2019s top 32 in the coming months, to ensure a seeding at future grand-slam tournaments \u2014 the next to take place is January\u2019s Australian Open. This would give her some protection in the draw, avoiding top players such as Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka, the world No1, in the first two rounds.<\/p>\n

\"2025<\/p>\n

Raducanu\u2019s decision also gives her more chance to work with her new coach, Roig, on the road<\/p>\n

JAVIER GARCIA\/SHUTTERSTOCK<\/p>\n

Raducanu was also looking forward to contesting a full Asian schedule for the first time in her career after being denied by injury in previous years. Up to seven weeks of tournaments are available to enter across cities such as Beijing, Wuhan and Tokyo.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to just building day by day,\u201d Raducanu said last week after her US Open third-round exit against Elena Rybakina. \u201cI think you take a few steps forward, one step back, but overall I\u2019m working and building towards good things.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just enjoying my tennis for the most part. It is tough to enjoy today [her defeat], but I think in the big scheme of things I\u2019m working towards playing better and being a better tennis player, more complete overall, and looking forward to going back to Asia. I\u2019ve never really played an Asia swing, so I hope this year I\u2019ll be able to.\u201d<\/p>\n

The packed calendar and a lack of cooperation between the sport\u2019s governing bodies has not helped. The International Tennis Federation had hoped that shifting the finals of the team event to the start of the Asian swing in September, rather than the traditional end-of-season slot in November, would result in more star players participating, but it is far from ideal that the WTA is holding a concurrent individual tournament in Seoul.<\/p>\n

Raducanu\u2019s absence leaves Katie Boulter to step up as the British No1 and Sonay Kartal as No2, with Jodie Burrage and Francesca Jones as the likely back-up options. The Japan team is headed by the four-times grand-slam champion Naomi Osaka, who lost in the US Open semi-finals against Anisimova on Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emma Raducanu has taken the sudden decision to withdraw from Great Britain\u2019s bid for a first Billie Jean…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-119231","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}