Emma Raducanu has withdrawn from next week’s Dongfeng Voyah Wuhan Open, the WTA 1000 in China, where she was due to play in qualifying this coming weekend, as her injury woes continue.
I think there could potentially be a lot of ‘yes’ people around her, instead of people telling her what she doesn’t want to hear, ‘You know what, Emma, you need to get out there and play’. She’s a good player. That’s not the issue. But this abbreviated schedule is just mind-blowing. Kieron Vorster, strength and conditioning coach
The 21-year-old Brit’s name was listed as withdrawn when the field was released by organisers on Wednesday.
While Raducanu has found some success this season, fighting her way back to No 54 in the world rankings, her schedule has been sparse, drawing criticism from several quarters as she snubbed competing in qualifying in favour of waiting for wild-cards, and, as a result, is very short on match play.
At Wimbledon this summer, Raducanu announced she would be joining Andy Murray in the mixed doubles, but then withdrew ahead of their 1st-round match, citing soreness in her wrist and sparking controversy as it denied the legendary Scot a farewell match at his home Grand Slam.
She was then beaten by Kiwi Lulu Sun in the 4th round, her best run at a major since her maiden triumph at the US Open in 2021.
Fitness struggles have plagued her for the past 3 years, and she has taken time out from competitive action to work on strength and conditioning, drawing criticism this week from Kieron Vorster, Tim Henman’s strength and conditioning coach.
“She just doesn’t play enough matches,” Vorster told the Daily Mail. “She plays an abbreviated clay court season, because she’s got a long grass court season and hard court season coming up and she doesn’t want to be burnt out or get injured.
“Then she was hurt against Lulu Sun in the round of 16 at Wimbledon, then plays one hard court event, goes to the US Open undercooked and loses first round.
“I think there could potentially be a lot of ‘yes’ people around her, instead of people telling her what she doesn’t want to hear, ‘You know what, Emma, you need to get out there and play’.
“She’s a good player. That’s not the issue. But this abbreviated schedule is just mind-blowing.
“There’s too many people around her. She’s got a guy from IMG [the agency who represent her] travelling with her every single week. The tennis world’s gone crazy – gone are the days where you just have your coach and your physical trainer.”
Raducanu struggled with injury problems across 2022 and 2023 and opted to have triple surgery last year to address various issues.
She returned to the WTA Tour in January, but has played only 13 events so far this year, which is 7 short of the target Henman set for her back in February.
Her most recent progress was halted at the Korea Open last month, where she picked up an foot injury in her Last 16 match against China’s Yuan Yue.
Although she managed to make it through that contest with a straight-sets win, Raducanu was clearly hampered in her quarter-final with Russian Daria Kasatkina, and, after losing the opening set 6-1, she retired injured, and later took to social media to clarify the situation.
“Hello, last week in Seoul I sprained some ligaments in my foot which unfortunately need some more time to heal,” she wrote. “It means I can’t play in Beijing (China Open) but I hope to be back competing as soon as I can.”
This is now the second consecutive tournament that the 2021 US Open champion has withdrawn from, and diminishes her hopes of returning to the world’s Top 50 by the end of 2024.
Raducanu was set to enter 3 upcoming tournaments, the WTA 500 Ningbo Open (14-20 October), WTA 250 Guangzhou Open (21-27 October) and the WTA 250 Hong Kong Open (28 October – 3 November), but it is now unclear if she will return to action in time for the first of those events in Hangzhou Bay.
