Emma Raducanu is now scheduled to make her competitive return to tennis next year after entering the United Cup and being confirmed on the Great Britain team. The former British number one, currently ranked fifth, has also successfully applied for a special ranking available to players sidelined for six months due to injury.

Raducanu, who turns 24 on Thursday, has not played since the Queen's final in mid-June, when she lost her first grass-court final to Donna Vekic. The 2021 US Open champion withdrew from Wimbledon a fortnight later, on the eve of this summer's championships, with a stress fracture of the shin.

Being able to use a special ranking means Raducanu will be assured of a place at the Australian Open in January and at one other Grand Slam next year, as well as five other WTA 1000 tournaments, with events in Doha, Dubai, Indian Wells and Miami first up during February and March. She played in all but one of those this year, withdrawing from the latter because of illness.

A year on from playing a career-best 50 matches in 2025, she has managed less than half of that amount this year, with just 21, almost half of which came across two events from Raducanu's runs to the finals of Queen's and the Transylvania Open in Romania, losing the latter as top seed to reigning champion Sorana Cirstea.