Emma Raducanu withdraws from Macau Tennis Masters exhibition as she celebrates 21st birthday
- Briton says she is ‘looking forward to the next chapter’, as she plots injury comeback after ‘challenging year’
- Raducanu has played just nine matches in 2023, and underwent surgeries on both of her hands and her left ankle in May
Former US Open champion Emma Raducanu has pulled out of an exhibition match next month at the Macau Tennis Masters, as she continues to recover from wrist and ankle surgery, her management company IMG said on Monday.
The two-day indoor hard court tournament at the Macau East Asian Games Dome over December 2 and 3 is set to feature four top ATP men’s players in American Taylor Fritz, Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor, Croatia’s Borna Coric and the rising Chinese star Zhang Zhizhen.
On the women’s side, former world No 8 Daria Kasatkina and Chinese youngster Wang Xinyu were set to play alongside Raducanu, who was poised to return to action after injuries during her first event of the season in Auckland needed surgeries on both her hands and left ankle in May.
But, on her 21st birthday, she decided to extend her time on the sidelines.
The Briton, who won her maiden grand slam title at Flushing Meadows in New York as an 18-year-old qualifier in 2021, has not played since April, missing the French Open, Wimbledon and US Open.
“Turned 21 with the best,” she wrote in an Instagram post on Monday. “Thank you so much for all the sweet wishes. Regardless of a challenging year there is a lot to be grateful for. Looking forward to the next chapter.”
Raducanu has played just nine matches in 2023.
After starting light training in August, she said that she is targeting a comeback for next season, with the exhibition in Macau coming too soon, as organisers need time to find a potential replacement.
The first major of the year kicks off in Melbourne on January 15.
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Raducanu, who has been struggling with hand pain since the end of the 2022 season, has seen her world ranking plummet to No 289 amid her injury struggles. But she can use a protected ranking of No 103 next year as she has not played in over six months, which could land her a place in the main draw of the Australian Open.
Raducanu is still likely to need a wild card to play in the Brisbane and Auckland warm-up events on the WTA Tour during the early weeks of the new season, however.
Last month, she began to step up her training at the UK’s National Tennis Centre in Roehampton under the guidance of LTA staff for her fitness and physio work.
But the BBC reported Raducanu is still yet to develop a dedicated team around her and currently does not have a full-time coach, though she is “itching” to get back to the court.
“I think the biggest thing from the last few months was how much I missed the sport,” Raducanu told Today on BBC Radio 4 last month.
“I think that was the stand-out thing – how much I missed training, how much I missed my body hurting and feeling tired and dragging yourself through certain exercises when you don’t feel like it.”
