Withdrawal from the US Open
Emma Raducanu will miss the US Open as she continues her recovery from a stress fracture in her lower right leg. The 23-year-old British No. 1, ranked 49th in the world, has not played since finishing runner-up at Queen's Club in June. She withdrew from Wimbledon on the eve of the tournament when a lower-leg niggle developed into a stress fracture, and her medical team has since advised that she needs more time to heal.[S1][S2][S4][S6]
Raducanu has offered glimpses of her rehabilitation on social media, including a clip of her sitting on a bin while hitting balls with a protective boot on her right leg. In another video from a trip to Switzerland, she returned to serving while standing on a clay court, though the boot remained in place. The US Open begins on 23 August and concludes on 13 September, meaning she will have spent three months away from competition by the time it ends.[S1][S2][S4][S5][S6]
A season of persistent setbacks
Before the season began, bone bruising in her foot severely hampered Raducanu's pre-season training. She then spent two and a half months off court with a post-viral illness after first falling unwell in early February. That illness forced her to miss more than two months of competition between March and May. These issues have repeatedly interrupted her career since she stunned the tennis world at Flushing Meadows in 2021.[S1][S2][S4][S6]
The grass-court season brought encouragement when Raducanu reached the final at Queen's Club, her biggest final since winning the US Open title in 2021. However, the heavy workload aggravated an issue that had been troubling her since the clay-court campaign. A scan confirmed a Grade 4 stress fracture, and doctors advised a recovery period of between eight and 16 weeks, forcing her to miss Wimbledon, the Canadian Open, Cincinnati and now the US Open.[S1][S3][S4][S6]
Missing the Billie Jean King Cup Finals
Raducanu was also not named in Great Britain's squad for the Billie Jean King Cup Finals, which take place in Shenzhen from 22 to 27 September. Katie Boulter is set to lead the British team, with Harriet Dart, Mika Stojsavljevic and Jodie Burrage also selected. The former champion's absence further underlines the severity of her latest setback. She will not compete in the tournament, which is scheduled for late September.[S2][S3][S5]
Raducanu's ranking has slipped to world No. 49, a position that does not reflect the ability of a former Grand Slam champion. She had shown signs of rediscovering her form earlier in the season, reaching her second WTA Tour final in Cluj-Napoca before her run at Queen's Club. Yet the injuries and illnesses of the past year have made consistency impossible.[S2][S3][S6]
Recovery takes precedence
The US Open holds profound personal significance for Raducanu, who captured the title in 2021 as an 18-year-old qualifier without dropping a set. She is said to be deeply saddened to miss a tournament that made her a household name. When withdrawing from Wimbledon in late June, she called the decision 'really difficult to process' after doing everything possible to reach the start line.[S2][S3][S4][S5][S6]
For now, recovery takes precedence over competition, with Raducanu and her team focused on ensuring a full return to fitness. She has not played a match since June, and by the end of the US Open she will have been away from the tour for three months. The immediate goal is to let the stress fracture heal completely before she returns to the court.[S2][S4][S6]
