Emma Raducanu’s French Open hopes could be about to get a big boostEmma Raducanu’s French Open hopes could be about to get a big boost
Emma Raducanu’s French Open hopes could be about to get a big boost
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Emma Raducanu is waiting to discover if she will need to play in qualifying to get into the main draw at the French Open and her hopes of playing in the second Grand Slam of the year could be about to get a boost.
Raducanu can use her protected ranking of No 103 to enter the French Open, but that meant she was five places outside the automatic entry list for the second major of 2024.
She was in a similar position heading into the Australian Open in January when enough players withdrew to ensure she didn’t need to go through qualifying to play in Melbourne.
A couple of players have pulled out of the French Open women’s draw, with Austria’s Julia Grabher the latest player to confirm she will not play at Roland Garros.
Italy’s Sara Errani and Australia’s Arina Rodionova are the next two players on the alternate list ahead of Raducanu and she will need to hope three players pull out over the weekend to give her a chance to play in Paris without going through qualifying.
Social media users have suggested the lack of footage of Raducanu practising on clay courts in recent weeks may mean she is already planning to return to the court when the grass court season gets underway next month.
An image of her with a racket bag over her shoulder appeared on her Instagram account on Friday, but that gave little indication of what surface she is currently practising on.
Injury doubts over American star Jessica Pegula and her fellow Brit Jodie Burrage could open more spots in the draw for Raducanu, with former British No 1 Andrew Castle telling Tennis365 that Raducanu has the quality to come good after a challenging few years after her 2021 US Open win.
“It will be really interesting to see how she deals with the spotlight that will inevitably fall on her when the grass court season comes around in Britain,” Buckland told Tennis365.
“I feel she is dealing with it well now and we all have to remember what a brutal sport tennis is.
“You could be playing really well, get a tough draw against a top ten player and you can lose.
“I just hope that she is allowed to continue to develop without too much negative attention directed towards her.
“The way some of the media work now, there is sometimes a batter angle to go with the negative rather than the positive and Raducanu has experienced that over the last couple of years.
“When she is on song, she is a terrific player. I love watching her play, but we have seen so many examples in the women’s game of players coming through, winning a Grand Slam and then struggling to back it up.
“You feel when they make that breakthrough that they are ready to challenge time and again, but they often go away and come back at a later date to challenge again.
“I feel that with a bit of luck with injuries, Raducanu has got the game to come back and get in the mix again. She’s still very young, so I’m not panicking for her.”
Raducanu will need to make a decision on whether she will play in French Open qualifying in the next 48 hours, with the option of making a return to the court for the grass court season at next month’s Nottingham Open another option.
