Emma Raducanu has struggled to build any momentum in an injury and illness-hit 2026 season and now she is about to suffer an inevitable slide down the WTA Rankings.
The British No 1 is currently on the sidelines once again with a stress fracture in her foot that ended her hopes of playing in her home Grand Slam at Wimbledon.
Raducanu confirmed the injury emerged after she played three matches in quick succession to reach the final of the WTA 500 tournament at the Queen’s Club in June, with her time on the sidelines set to be costly to her ranking.
The 2021 US Open champion reached the semi-finals at the WTA 500 tournament in Washington this time last season, but those ranks are about to drop off her ranking and the live WTA list highlights the impact that will have.
The updated list shows that Raducanu will slide down 12 places to No 49 in the updated rankings and that slide is likely to get even worse by the time she returns to the court.
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She had already pulled out of upcoming WTA 1000 tournaments in Canada and Cincinnati and that will ensure more valuable rankings points drop off her tally.
If she then pulls out of the US Open, and that seems highly likely at this stage of her recovery, another 130 points will come off her record.
It means that by the time she returns to action, Raducanu could be ranked around No 85 and that would not be enough for her to gain entry into top tier WTA events.
Her status as a Grand Slam champion earned her plenty of wildcards in the period after her US Open win, but that was a long time ago and there are more credible candidates for tournament organisers to add to their draw now.
So Raducanu may be forced to enter qualifying events if she wants to continue to play top level events and former British No 1 Greg Rusedski admits she faces a challenging period when she returns.
“I think you have to be in the team to really know what the issue is,” said Rusedski on his podcast.
“It depends on how you’re training, how you’re loading, what’s happening. I don’t have enough information, but all I know is we have a lot of talented players in Britain and we need to find a way to keep them healthy.
“Also, consistency of team helps, consistency of training. You can’t take long periods of time off. Even when you’re on holiday, you still need to hit balls. You still need to go to the gym. You need to keep it going because stop starting.
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“I remember when Roger Federer was at the peak of his powers and he was still hitting tennis balls when he went on holiday with his family. That’s what you need to do.
“I’m a recreational player now, but if I stop for a few weeks and then I got a seniors event or something, I’m sore. I’m stiff. I don’t bounce back as quickly. So it’s easier for me if I’m just training consistently.
“You need the same approach as the pros. And you have to get that sort of impact and volume. And for Emma at Queen’s, the problem was she’s played so many back-to-back matches.
“So she wasn’t trained for her body to be able to do that. You can say it’s bad luck, but you have to be prepared sometimes to play two matches in a day and maybe back-to-back two matches.
“I just wish her well. I want to see her healthy. I want to see all our Brits healthy and going in the right direction. But you’ve got to have a look at the sports science behind it as well because something is not right when we have this many of them injured all the time.”
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