{"id":352026,"date":"2026-01-04T17:49:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T17:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/352026\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T17:49:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T17:49:09","slug":"emma-raducanu-withdraws-from-united-cup-as-gb-make-winning-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/352026\/","title":{"rendered":"Emma Raducanu withdraws from United Cup as GB make winning start"},"content":{"rendered":"

Emma Raducanu’s absence did not trouble Great Britain too much as they started their United Cup campaign with a 2-1 win over Japan in Perth.<\/p>\n

The British No.1 was set for her first competitive outing since mid-October, having ended last season early amid physical struggles in China, but she pulled out of her clash against Naomi Osaka.<\/p>\n

No official reason was given for her withdrawal but with just a fortnight to go until the start of the Australian Open, GB team captain Tim Henman hinted at a cautious approach over Raducanu’s fitness.<\/p>\n

“I’ve got to be honest, she was very, very close,” Henman told Australian broadcaster Nine. “It was not an easy decision. She had been building up and practising really well.<\/p>\n

“I don’t think she is necessarily out of this tournament just yet.”<\/p>\n

Raducanu, who could be seeded at the year’s first grand slam, excused herself from a couple of exhibition matches in the United States last month in order to regain full fitness for the 2026 season.<\/p>\n

Some light bone bruising on her right foot was a factor but was not thought to stop her from last month’s pre-season preparations alongside new coach Francisco Roig in Barcelona.<\/p>\n

She could make her comeback in GB’s next Group E outing against Greece on Monday after Henman’s side edged out Japan.<\/p>\n

Katie Swan was thrust into action with Raducanu sidelined and slumped to a 7-6 (4) 6-1 defeat by former world No.1 Osaka after Billy Harris had beaten Shintaro Mochizuki 7-6 (4) 6-3.<\/p>\n

In the deciding mixed doubles rubber, Neal Skupski and Olivia Nicholls overcame Yasutaka Uchiyama and Nao Hibino in a tense match tie-break, triumphing 7-5 4-6 10-7.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/p>\n

Following the win, Henman elaborated on Raducanu in a press conference, saying: “She struggled with her foot for the end of last year. The improvement that she’s made has been fantastic.<\/p>\n

“She’s been practicing in London, really only doing static drills, to be out on the practice court and moving and playing games. She is very close.<\/p>\n

“In terms of tomorrow, it’s still a little bit up in the air. We’re kind of forced to put Emma on the list because if we didn’t do that, then that only gives us one option.<\/p>\n

“When we get back tonight, we’ll discuss it as a team.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emma Raducanu’s absence did not trouble Great Britain too much as they started their United Cup campaign with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-352026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352026","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=352026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}