Emma Raducanu Awarded Another Wild Card For 2025 Dubai Championships
News
Emma Raducanu will have an opportunity to kickstart her season at the 2025 Dubai Championships after being given a wild card.
The 2021 US Open champion was awarded a wild card for the ongoing 2025 Qatar Open. She lost in the opening round to Ekaterina Alexandrova, who also defeated Aryna Sabalenka on her way to the semifinal in Doha.
That was Raducanu's second wild card after she was handed one for the 2025 Abu Dhabi Open. The 22-year-old lost to former Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova in the opening round. She probably feels unlucky with draws lately.
Raducanu's setbacks Vondrousova and Alexandrova were her third and fourth consecutive defeats. The first two losses in that run were a hammering by Iga Swiatek at the 2025 Australian Open in a grueling battle with Cristina Bucsa in Singapore.
Receiving a wild card for next week's Dubai Championships gives her another opportunity to get back to winning ways. There will also be plenty of ranking points on offer because the tournament has WTA 1000 status.
Raducanu receiving wild cards for her last three tournaments shows how impactful winning a Grand Slam is. Her star quality and name recognition from that moment are why tournaments want her in their draws.
That is despite Raducanu not reaching a WTA final at any level since her extraordinary US Open triumph as an 18-year-old qualifier. Over three years later, she remains popular, and fans worldwide enjoy watching her.
The current losing run is surprising on one level because Raducanu seemed to be in a very good place at the Australian Open. She defeated Alexandrova in the opening round and then produced a superb defensive display against Amanda Anisimova to win again.
Although losing heavily against world No. 2 Swiatek in the third round was disappointing, it is nothing to be ashamed of. Raducanu's performances in her opening two matches would undoubtedly have been good enough to earn her more wins.
The Briton may have been impacted by splitting with Nick Cavaday after the Australian Open. She had been working with her childhood coach since the start of the 2024 season, but he stepped back for family reasons.
Raducanu has had several short-term coaches, including Torben Beltz, Angelique Kerber's former coach, and Dimitry Tursunov, Anett Kontaveit's former coach. Her spell with Cavaday was the longest of her professional career.
She has not replaced Cavaday yet. Raducanu initially said she was fascinated to learn more about herself during the ongoing period without a coach, but it might be best to swiftly appoint someone to work with her again on a full-time basis.
It has been a complicated few years for Raducanu since she won the US Open. Her hopes of consistently being near the top of women's tennis were harmed by severe wrist and ankle issues that ruled the 22-year-old out of most of the 2023 season.
Avoiding injuries is crucial to her chances of improving. She appointed Yutaka Nakamura, Naomi Osaka and Maria Sharapova's former fitness coach during the off-season to help with that goal.
