The list of wild cards for the 2024 Cincinnati Open women's tournament was recently released, and the most notable omission was former US Open champion Emma Raducanu.
This is a combined men's and women's tournament that will be the last big battleground before the final Grand Slam of the season in New York. It will run from August 13th to 19th.
As a one-week WTA 1000 event, the singles field will only consist of 56 players. The cut-off mark for automatic entry into the main draw is set at 41. The entry list will be finalized this weekend, as eight more players will join in as qualifiers.
The tournament organizers have named four wild card entrants. These are Caroline Wozniacki, Bianca Andreescu, and the American pair of Caroline Dolehide and Peyton Stearns.
Raducanu has made significant progress since the start of the grass-court swing to vault inside the Top 100. She is currently ranked World No. 69, a massive jump of over 200 spots from mid-April when she fell outside the Top 300.
However, her double-digit ranking was not sufficient to enable her to attain a main draw spot. She has also been snubbed of a wild card, and that means Radcuanu will need to play the qualifying tournament over the weekend if she wants to compete in Cincinnati.
It's the second successive WTA 1000 tournament in North America that Raducanu has not received a wild card. She was also overlooked for this week's Canadian Open in Toronto, where she was born.
The 21-year-old has only competed in one hard-court tournament since her fourth-round exit at Wimbledon. She was a quarterfinalist at the Citi Open in Washington, where she lost to eventual champion Paula Badosa.
The Cincinnati Open qualifying draw has not been released, and it will be interesting to see if Raducanu intends to play in that tournament. We know with absolute certainty that the British tennis star would much rather play in the main draw than go through the rigors of qualifying.
A case in point was at this year's Roland Garros, where she withdrew from the tournament upon learning that she wouldn't receive a main draw wild card and was entered into the qualifying event. This latest situation means that Raducanu has very limited options when it comes to her preparation for the US Open.
If she declines to play qualifying in Cincinnati, Raducanu might elect to compete in the WTA 250 in Cleveland, which is the last tuneup before the year's final major.
But that is obviously not ideal scheduling for a player who has ambitions to go deep in a Grand Slam tournament. And considering that she has already qualified for the 2024 US Open thanks to her strong grass-court season, it puts her in a very tricky situation.
For now, Raducanu is pleased that she will be playing the US Open for the third time in her career. It is a tournament that unearthed her talent on the grandest stage, but how she will prepare for the tournament is a different ball game.
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