Emma Raducanu is ready to make her tennis comeback in January however may face a troublesome check right away. With Coco Gauff now signed as much as the identical event during which she'll make her comeback, she may face one of many world's most in-form gamers in her first sport again.

Former US Open champion Raducanu struggled with a wrist harm early this 12 months and has not performed since April. In May, the 21-year-old ended her season after undergoing surgery on her ankle and both wrists.

She has since been working onerous to return to full health. After months of hypothesis, it has been confirmed that Raducanu will make her return at the Auckland Open which commences on New Year’s Day.

This will mark her second look on the New Zealand-based event, and there's a likelihood she is going to start her marketing campaign in opposition to fellow US Open winner Gauff in what can be an especially powerful first match again.The reigning champion at Flushing Meadows received the primary of her 4 titles in 2023 on the ASB Classic and can return to attempt to defend her title.

Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina, a Grand Slam semi-finalist and Olympic bronze medalist, can also be set to compete within the occasion earlier than the Australian Open, the primary main of the 12 months. Raducanu and Gauff have solely competed as soon as earlier than, which was within the second spherical at Melbourne Park again in January.

The American claimed a 6-3, 7-6(4) win and he or she went on to have a stellar 2023, that completed with a Grand Slam title and a career-high rating of No. 3. Raducanu has discovered it troublesome each on and off the courtroom since turning into a celebrity in a single day after her 2021 US Open victory.

She has not reached a remaining since defeating Leylah Fernandez to say the title in New York and after reaching a career-high rating of No. 10, she has now plummeted to 296. While many challenges lie forward as soon as she returns to motion, former tennis participant Laura Robson has each religion that the Bromley native can rediscover her greatest tennis.

“We know she has got the game to do it. She has the ball striking ability, she is a great mover and a great all-round player and she competes,” Robson told Tennis365 at a Play Your Way To Wimbledon event. “All you can do is stay as healthy as possible and try to play as many matches as possible to see where you go.

“Other players have come back very quickly in this last year. Svtolina has been amazing to watch and then Wozniacki has looked amazing considering she has not played in three and a half years. There are lots of players for Emma to look up to as examples of how quickly it can come back and not to get too disheartened if it doesn’t because everyone is on their own journey.” Though she is now ranked simply contained in the world’s prime 300, Raducanu is allowed to make use of a protected rating of 103.

This was her place following the conclusion of the Madrid Open, her final event. However, she has missed out on the preliminary group of Australian Open wildcards resulting from her rating, and if she doesn't obtain one, she must undergo the qualifying rounds. But as tennis followers bear in mind, the final time Raducanu certified for a Grand Slam, she stormed to the title with out dropping a set. Furthermore, she made historical past by turning into the primary participant to win a serious after coming by means of the qualifying rounds.