Emma Raducanu has been dealt a rough hand at the Abu Dhabi Open as she will face a former Wimbledon champion in the first round.

The British No 2 initially entered the qualifying competition of the WTA 500 event, but was promoted to the main draw as a wildcard just hours before she was due to compete on Saturday.

But that was where the good news stopped for Raducanu as she has been handed a difficult opener against Marketa Vondrousova while she could face fourth seed Yulia Putintseva in the second round if she wins.

Raducanu is 2-2 so far in 2025 after she lost in the third round of the Australian Open before suffering a three-set defeat to Cristina Busca at the Singapore Tennis Open earlier this week.

The 2021 US Open winner is currently at No 56 in the WTA Rankings, but she has 60 points to defend after reaching the second round of the 56-player singles draw in 2024.

This will be Raducanu and Vondrousova’s third career meeting as their head-to-head is currently 1-1 with the Brit winning in the round of 64 at Wimbledon in 2021 before the latter won the Billie Jean King Cup match the following year.

The Vondrousova encounter will be difficult, but the Czech has had some injury woes as she has played only one completed match so far this year due to injury. The world No 36 sustained a shoulder injury during the Adelaide Open and then withdrew from the Australian Open.

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Vondrousova, who became the first unseeded female player to win the Wimbledon title in 2023 when she beat Ons Jabeur in the final, used her protected ranking to enter the main draw in the United Arab Emirates.

If the seedings hold, then world No 20 Putintseva will meet fifth seed Liudmila Samsonova in the quarter-final. Although Samsonova will need to get past Polini Kudermetova in the first round and possibly Belind Bencic in the second round.

They are all part of the top half of the draw featuring top seed Elena Rybakina.

Defending champion Rybakina will start her title defence against a qualifier while she is projected to play seventh seed Jelena Ostapenko – who has a 1-3 win-loss record this year – or Jabeur in the quarter-final.

Australian Open semi-finalist Paola Badosa headlines the bottom half of the draw and she will start against either Linda Noskova or Magdalena Fręch before potentially meeting fifth seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the last eight.

Third seed Daria Kasatkina, who finished runner-up last year, also features in the bottom half and she is projected to meet eighth seed Leylah Fernandez in the quarter-final.