Emma Raducanu will not play at Wimbledon. The British tennis player, the 2021 US Open champion, announced her retirement on Sunday night via Instagram due to a stress fracture in her right leg.
She was scheduled to debut on Court 1 on Monday against Antonia Ruzic. The injury had been dragging her since the clay season, but it aggravated during her participation at the Queen’s Club, where she reached the final before losing to Donna Vekic.
On Sunday morning, at a press conference, he still expressed hope of playing. Hours later, a scan changed everything.
“I’ve done everything I can to try and get to the start line tomorrow, but after a final scan tonight, the discomfort I’ve been managing has turned into a stress fracture and I’ve been medically advised to stop pushing. Playing at Wimbledon, in front of a home crowd, means everything to me, so this is really hard to take,” Raducanu wrote.
The Briton has not won another WTA tournament since her surprising title in New York, where she qualified from the qualifying phase at age 18. However, her performance at Queen’s Club showed flashes of her best tennis.
“Queen’s, during that week, was a lot of burden for me,” he declared hours before. “Five games after not having competed for a while. But I’m just handling it with my team the best I can, exhausting all options.”
Wimbledon thus loses its most relevant local card. The organization has not commented on the replacement in the box.
