Emma Raducanu has not struck a ball since she lost the final of the WTA 500 event at the Queen’s Club in June and now the inevitable outcome of her latest injury lay-off has been reflected in her rankings.
Raducanu suffered a stress fracture in his foot during her run to the final of the grass court event in London, which forced her to pull out of Wimbledon.
She has since confirmed that her comeback to tennis will not come in time for her to compete at the US Open, in a year when the fifth anniversary of her famous win at Flushing Meadows will be marked.
Her absence from the tour has seen a host of ranking points drop off her record and now it has been confirmed that she will lose her position as British No 1 at the end of this week.
Katie Boulter has been struggling for wins over the last few months, but she will comfortably overtake Raducanu when the WTA Rankings are updated next Monday and will head into the US Open as British No 1.
More Tennis News
Raducanu’s slide will continue when the 130 ranking points she collected from a run to the third round of last year’s US Open drop off her rankings and with no evidence that she is close to a return to action, there is a possibility that she could slip out of the top 100 off the rankings by the end of this year.
That would force Raducanu to play in lower level tournaments, play in qualifying events or seek wild cards if and when she mounts a comeback, with her career sliding backwards once again.
Want more from Tennis365? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for tennis coverage you can trust.
Former World No 1 Andy Roddick is among those lamenting the demise of Raducanu, as he gave his views on his Served podcast.
“We might not even see her for the rest of this year. It just stinks because she is so good and it’s just the stop and start of things,” said Roddick.
“You can’t get around a stress fracture, that’s not a pain tolerance thing at all. It has to heal or you are going to cause extreme long-term damage. It just stinks. She could be such a bright spot for the tours and it just seems like there are speed bumps all the time, which is just unfortunate.
“She was playing great at Queen’s too, like she was going to blow the roof off of Wimbledon. She is so good and so injured all the time.”
“It’s got to be kind of depressing for her too. I keep thinking we are going to get six months where we are going to be able to go and play and do all the things and we are just not able to get it.”
READ NEXT: Andrew Castle makes ominious prediction about Emma Raducanu’s career following injury issues
