The Sports Guru
Emma Raducanu is out of the US Open, the tournament that made her a champion, after another physical interruption. This article explains why the injury matters beyond one withdrawal and what it leaves uncertain about the rest of her 2026 season.
Emma Raducanu’s season has reached the point where a return date matters more than a draw. The British No 1 will miss the 2026 US Open because of a stress fracture in her right lower leg, removing her from the tournament that remains the clearest reference point of her career.
The absence is painful in the obvious sense: New York is where Raducanu won the title, and where she won her first matches there since that triumph last summer. More revealing is the shape of the year around it. A foot injury disrupted her pre-season, a post-viral illness kept her off court for two-and-a-half months, and a promising run on grass ended by producing the latest setback.
This is not a neat story of poor form corrected by a few weeks away. It is a season repeatedly interrupted before it can establish any rhythm.
The US Open withdrawal is the consequence, not the whole problem
Raducanu suffered the injury during the grass-court season and made a late decision to withdraw from Wimbledon. Following consultation with her medical team, she has concluded that she cannot play in New York later this month.
A stress fracture does not invite the usual tournament arithmetic. There is no suggestion that a difficult first round, a ranking point or a favourable route could alter the issue. The report noted that Raducanu had only recently taken tentative steps back on court while wearing a protective boot. Her Instagram post from a break in Switzerland included serve practice with that boot on her right foot.
She called the break the “best reset ever”. The tone may be upbeat; the image tells a more cautious sporting story. Serving in a boot is evidence of a player finding a way to stay connected to the work, not evidence that she is ready for competition.
That distinction matters because the US Open is not merely another event omitted from the calendar. It is the place against which Raducanu’s career is most readily measured, even as the immediate concern is far simpler: allowing a right-leg injury to heal properly.
Queen’s Club supplied encouragement - and then a limit
There was a strong counterpoint in June. Raducanu reached Queen’s Club, her biggest final since New York and one of the best weeks of her career. The report says that effort triggered the setback which now rules her out of the US Open.
That makes Queen’s Club awkwardly instructive. It offered proof that her tennis could still produce a deep run, yet it also came at a physical cost that changed the rest of the summer. A good week can restore belief; it cannot settle the question of how much tennis a body can currently absorb.
Raducanu returned at the end of the clay-court season after rehiring Andrew Richardson, the coach who guided her to the US Open title. Their time working together has been limited. That is another practical consequence of a stop-start year: coaching plans require court time, and court time has been scarce.
The analysis here is not that one run caused every later problem. The available account identifies the Queen’s Club effort as the trigger for this setback. Its wider significance lies in the contrast between the level Raducanu reached and the inability to build immediately from it.
A year reduced to uncertainty
Before the grass season, Raducanu’s foot injury had severely hampered pre-season training. After falling unwell in early February, she then spent two-and-a-half months away from the court with post-viral illness. She eventually returned for the end of the clay-court season, only for Wimbledon and now the US Open to disappear from the programme.
The pattern is not simply a list of absences. Each interruption takes away the ordinary repetition through which a season gathers shape: training, competition, recovery, then another week. Raducanu has instead been required to restart.
She was not included in Great Britain’s team for the Billie Jean King Cup Finals in late September. The report also raises questions over whether the 23-year-old will play again before the end of 2026. There is no confirmed timetable in the account, which makes speculation about a quick return less useful than acknowledging the uncertainty.
Her ranking is currently 49 and is expected to fall. That presents a further complication when she is ready, although ranking is not the central issue here. The immediate task is physical availability. Tennis can wait; a stress fracture sets the terms.
New York can wait, but the next return must last
Raducanu’s US Open title gave every later visit to Flushing Meadows an unusual weight. This withdrawal changes none of that history. It does, however, remove a chance to build on last summer’s positive progress at the venue.
The sharper question is whether 2026 can still contain a return that is more than symbolic. A brief appearance before the year ends may answer one question while leaving the larger one untouched: can Raducanu train and compete long enough for momentum to mean something?
That is why this latest absence feels larger than one missed Grand Slam. The calendar has kept moving. Her season has too often had to stop and start beside it.
Frequently Asked Questions
She has a stress fracture in her right lower leg, suffered during the grass-court season.
Yes. She made a late decision to withdraw from Wimbledon after the injury.
A foot injury hampered pre-season training, and a post-viral illness kept her off court for two-and-a-half months after she fell unwell in early February.
The report says there are questions over whether she will compete again before the end of the year; no return date is confirmed.
Research: This article uses the archived evidence supplied for this story. Story inspiration: Sky Sports' original report.