British tennis star Emma Raducanu is unlikely to play at next summer's Paris Olympics because she doesn't meet the qualifying requirements.
Raducanu is currently out of competition due to injuries on her wrists and ankle, which needed surgery in the middle of the 2023 season. She has spent the second half of the campaign convalescing and only started training recently.
Raducanu is currently ineligible to feature at the Olympic Games next year, having only represented Great Britain once in the four-year Olympic cycle. She made her debut at the 2022 Billie Jean King Cup qualifiers last April, where the Brits lost their tie to the Czech Republic 3-2.
Great Britain still made it to the finals later that year as a host nation. But Raducanu withdrew from the event in Glasgow due to injury. Team captain Anne Keothavong left the door open for Raducanu to make her return to the fold during the 2023 qualifiers against France, but the 20-year-old chose to focus on Tour-level competition the following week.
Sadly for Raducanu the tournament in Stuttgart immediately after her compatriots lost out to France proved to be the final nail in the coffin as three surgeries curtailed her season in May. Even though she has resumed full-scale training, Raducanu will not play in the closing weeks of the season.
She was excluded from the four-woman team to play in the play-off tie against Sweden in November. Eligibility for the tennis event at the Olympics hinges on whether Raducanu is able to get her ranking within the Top 56.
Aside from that, she needs to be nominated for the Billie Jean King Cup competition in the early part of 2024, otherwise, she'll need to apply for a special dispensation, presumably listing injury, as one of the special circumstances acceptable by the panel.
"The player must have fulfilled the minimum participation requirement in the ITF Davis Cup or ITF Billie Jean King Cup Competitions during the Olympic Cycle, by being: part of the final nominated Davis Cup or Billie Jean King Cup team, and present at the Tie/Event, on a minimum of two (2) occasions during the Olympic Cycle, provided that one of those occasions is in either 2023 or 2024."
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