Emma Raducanu has given her supporters a reason to celebrate after receiving encouraging news that could boost her confidence ahead of the next stage of the season. The positive development has sparked excitement among tennis fans, many of whom believe the former US Open champion could be on the verge of rediscovering her best form.
Emma Raducanu has received a welcome boost after she made a small leap forward in the latest WTA Rankings, but the alarm bells may soon be ringing for the British No 1.
Raducanu has not hit a ball in competitive matchplay since she reached the final of the WTA 500 event at the Queen’s Club in June, with her impressive performances suggesting a troubled 2026 may be about to take a turn for the better.
Yet the three matches she played in two days at Queen’s proved to be too much for her body, with a stress fracture of her foot ending her hopes of playing at Wimbledon and casting doubt over when she will return.
Raducanu is up one place to No 37 in this week’s WTA Rankings, with that rise a welcome boost as she may still be a long way from playing again.
Yet after pulling out of next month’s Canadian Open and the WTA 1000 event at Cincinnati that follows later in the month, her ranking is set to slide rapidly.
There is a widespread expectation that Raducanu may also be forced to miss the US Open and if she did pull out of the final Grand Slam of the year, her ranking may slide outside of the top 50 in the WTA Rankings.
If Raducanu does not return until the back end of the season, the player who has won just 11 matches in 2026 could face a fight to keep her ranking intact, with former British No 1 Greg Rusedski arguing ‘health is your wealth’ as he urged his fellow Brit to solve her fitness issues.
“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.
“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.
