Tennis needs to make strict rule change after what Emma Raducanu has just done following Queen’s

Emma Raducanu had a tournament to remember at Queen’s, but her last-minute withdrawal from the Nottingham Open leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

Raducanu reached the final in London, picking up impressive victories against Iva Jovic, Sorana Cirstea, Anna Blinkova, and Kamilla Rakhimova across the week.

Her tournament was eventually ended by a red-hot Donna Vekic, who came through the match by a scoreline of 6-0, 7-6 to lift the Queen’s title.

Raducanu is up to a ranking of World No. 31 after her exploits in London, which puts her in seeded entry position for Wimbledon with just a few weeks to go until the top players are set.

However, Raducanu’s instant withdrawal from the Nottingham Open is an incredibly poor move – and should lead to a rule change from both the ATP and WTA Tour.

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Raducanu took a last-minute wildcard into the Nottingham Open ahead of her quarter-final match at Queen’s against Rakhimova, but she decided to drop out of the WTA 250 event after losing the final to Vekic.

While Raducanu has every right to withdraw from the event, taking a wildcard away from another British star to then drop out of the tournament is a selfish move.

She cited a ‘change of schedule’ as the reason for her withdrawal, rather than injury, so it should a complete lack of respect for her fellow British stars.

Tennis must introduce a rule that says players cannot withdraw from events if they have received a wildcard, unless they are legitimately injured.

It is currently unclear whether Raducanu will play another tournament ahead of Wimbledon, but an appearance at the Eastbourne Open prior to the Grand Slam could be on the cards.

She is not currently on the entry list for the South Coast event, but the Eastbourne Open would likely jump at the chance to give her a last-minute wildcard.

Let’s just hope Raducanu does not let the tournament down as she has done with the Nottingham Open. With no Iva Jovic or Jacqueline Cristian either, the WTA 250 event has been left with limited star power.

If Raducanu does enter the Eastbourne Open, she would be the third-highest-ranked player in the tournament, so she would have a very good chance of a deep run.

She has played the tournament in the past two years, and in 2024 she reached the quarter-finals of the event.

Only Jasmine Paolini and Madison Keys would be ranked higher than Raducanu, with Jelena Ostapenko, Barbora Krejčiková, Cristian, Maria Sakkari, Janice Tjen, and McCartney Kessler also signed up for the tournament.

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