Emma Raducanu will not compete at the China Open in Beijing, scheduled from September 30 to October 11. The 23-year-old Briton, the 2021 US Open champion, has pulled out of the WTA 1000 event due to a stress fracture in her right foot sustained during the Queen's Club Championships in June. Three months without competitive tennis later, her season is veering further off course.
Every analysis of the day, free
Create your free account to unlock today's analyses.
Three months out and a ranking in freefall
Raducanu has not played a match since her final against Donna Vekic at Queen's in June. What should have been a springboard into grass-court season became a nightmare instead: the stress fracture diagnosed after the London event forced her to skip Wimbledon, the entire North American hard-court swing, and now the Asian swing. Her ranking, which hovered near the top 30 before Queen's, has tumbled to No. 89 in the world. A drop out of the top 100 before year's end looks increasingly likely if the absence continues.
Hopes of a return dashed
Images of the Briton hitting at the National Tennis Centre had circulated in recent weeks, raising hopes of a comeback for the Asian swing. This withdrawal from Beijing extinguishes those hopes and casts serious doubt over her participation in the remaining events of the season. Raducanu joins a growing list of players to pull out of the China Open, a sign of a grueling late-season calendar after an intense summer.
A 2026 season defined by instability
Beyond the injury, Raducanu's 2026 campaign has been disrupted by a coaching change: the Briton parted ways with Francisco Roig after the Australian Open, adding further turbulence to an already fragile season. The early-season promise, when she was knocking on the door of the top 30, now feels distant.
At 23, Raducanu's ability to return to the highest level is not in question. Her 2021 US Open title, won through qualifying without dropping a set, remains one of the most remarkable achievements in recent women's tennis. The issue is timing: no return date has been announced, and the rest of 2026 is shaping up as a race between physical recovery and ranking points slipping away.
