The Cincinnati Open organisers have released their list of wildcards for this year’s tournament and Emma Raducanu’s name is missing, raising question marks over her preparation for the US Open.
The WTA 1000 tournament is a 56-player event and the first 41 players in the WTA Rankings (dated two weeks prior) receive an automatic entry, four players receive wildcards, eight will come through qualifying while one could earn a special exemption into the main draw.
After skipping the Canadian Open qualifying after she was also overlooked for a wildcard for Toronto as she failed to gain direct entry due to her ranking, Raducanu was expected to receive one of the wildcards for Cincinnati.
However, those went to former world No 1 Caroline Wozniacki, 2019 US Open winner Bianca Andreescu and United States duo Caroline Dolehide and Peyton Stearns.
Raducanu will have to come through qualifying if she is to feature in the main draw of one of the biggest events on the North American calendar.
The qualifying list has not yet been released, but it remains to be seen if the 21-year-old will enter as she has steered clear of qualifying events since making a name for herself in 2021 when she won the US Open as a qualifier.
The Brit skipped the Paris Olympics to focus on her ranking during the hard-court swing and it started off well as she reached the quarter-final of the Washington Open last week.
That result has helped her to climb back up to No 69 in the WTA Rankings, which is good enough for a direct entry into the US Open main draw as it is a 128-player field.
The former world No 10 admitted ahead of the Washington event that she had achieved the “big thing” she set out a few months ago and that was qualifying for the majors.
“I started the grass season ranked outside of 200 and finished it in the top 100. For me that was relatively successful,” she explained. “It guaranteed me a spot hopefully in the main draw of the US [Open]. That was a big thing for me. I wanted to make sure I got into the Slams.”
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However, if she doesn’t play in Cincinnati next week it will leave her with only a handful of matches under her belt ahead of the final Grand Slam of the year as she played only three matches in Washington DC.
The WTA 1000 Cincy Open is the last big tournament before the US Open, but there are two events on the calendar the week before the major at Flushing Meadows.
Mexico hosts the WTA 500 Monterrey Open while the WTA 250 Tennis in the Land will take place in Cleveland.
Traditionally, the top players skip the events prior to a major as they prefer to prepare in New York, but given Raducanu’s lack of game time she could well feature at one of those events.
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