Emma Raducanu has one last chance to avoid a worrying US Open problem

Emma Raducanu has one last chance to get some matches under her belt ahead of the US Open, but there is no evidence she is ready to take it. Raducanu opted against playing at the Olympic Games in Paris this month as she chased ranking points at the WTA Tour event in Washington and that decision reaped some rewards, with a run to the quarter-finals seeing her make another rise up the rankings.

Yet her hopes of backing up that encouraging run in Washington have been hampered by her failure to pick up wildcards for the WTA 1000 events at Toronto and Cincinnati, leaving her woefully short of match practice ahead of the US Open. This is partly due to Raducanu’s decision not to play in qualifying for Toronto, even though she appeared on the initial list for qualifying in Canada.

She is also missing this week’s Cincinnati tournament after failing to land a wildcard and not even getting a wildcard into qualifying, where former Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka among those competing. This is not the first time Raducanu has opted out of playing in qualifying, as she also decided against entering qualifying for the French Open last May and failed to get a wildcard into the main draw for the Roland Garros tournament.

She later confirmed her decision to miss the French Open was due to her desire to get in some extra practice on grass courts and that decision repeated big rewards as she leapt from a ranking well outside of the top 200 to a position comfortably back in the top 100 after a run to the semi-finals at the Nottingham Open, the quarter-finals at the Eastbourne International and the fourth round at Wimbledon.

Yet her time on court since that encouraging burst of form in front of her home British fans has been limited to three matches in Washington, with her decision to decline the chance to play in qualifying at the WTA 1000 event in Toronto backed up by her absence from the upcoming tournament in Cincinnati.

Playing at the Tennis In The Land tournament in Cleveland should now be an option for Raducanu, as she would have a good chance of getting a wildcard if she requested one. The current entry list in Cleveland currently features Canada’s Leylah Fernandez, the player Raducanu beat in the 2021 US Open final, former Grand Slam champion Sofia Kenin, along with world No 38 Katerina Siniakova and No 44 ranked Anastasia Potapova.

What is clear is that Raducanu will no longer be swayed by pressure to enter tournaments at a rapid rate, as her focus now is trained on staying fit and making steady progress rather than looking for quick-fire gains. “I’m going to do things on my own time,” said Raducanu in June. “I’m in no rush to do anything and everything I am doing and playing for now is for myself.

“Whether that’s tournament scheduling, whether that’s how much time I take off to train compared to compete, I think I’m just way more focused on my own lane and less susceptible to outside opinions or views. “I’m just enjoying it, just doing everything for myself and really just being independent out here.

“At one point I was chasing playing too many tournaments and then I was just picking up niggle after niggle in every tournament because I never really gave myself any time to do the training. That is something I’ve done a lot better this year.

“Even though I might get challenged or questioned for not playing certain tournaments, like the French Open or the Olympics, that is just part of it, doing things at my own speed and how I want to, rather than how everyone else thinks is best for me.”

Reports suggest Raducanu flew back to the UK once it became clear that she would not get wildcards into the WTA 1000 events in Toronto and Cincinnati, but her options to enter alternative tournaments have been limited.

She could have played in ITF World Tennis Tour events in the UK, but dropping down the levels in tennis has not been appealing to Raducanu since her return to action from an injury lay-off in the second half of 2023.

So Raducanu has been in a state of limbo since losing against Paula Badosa in the quarter-finals in Washington earlier this month and if she doesn’t play in Cleveland, she will go into the US Open woefully short of match practice on hard courts.

Arriving at the US Open after a three-week break and with just three hard court matches under her belt would leave her underprepared heading into the final major of this year, but this is a dilemma Raducanu will continue to face if she only wants to play in top tier events.

We are approaching the third anniversary of Raducanu’s stunning US Open win, with one of the greatest stories in tennis history becoming a fading memory for a player who needs to play in more tournaments to retain the star status her iconic 2021 New York win gave her.