Emma Raducanu appears to have shut down her 2026 season and TV analyst Annabel Croft believes it is “not a bad decision” as she can now focus on being fully fit for the 2027 tennis campaign.

The 2021 US Open winner was last in action in June as she pulled off a series of impressive wins to reach the final of the Queen’s Club Championship before losing in straight sets against Donna Vekic.

That final on 14 June was her last match as she then withdrew from Nottingham Open and Wimbledon due to a grade four stress fracture in her right leg.

She was initially expected to return to action during the North American hard-court swing, but ended up missing that campaign and she is now also set to skip the entire Asian swing as her name does not appear on the entry list of the remaining tournaments.

Emma Raducanu News

Former player-turned-TV analyst Annabel Croft told Sky Sports Tennis: “It wouldn’t be a surprise if she made that decision [to close down her season]. That wouldn’t be such a bad decision to take because you can fully heal, rest up, get as much treatment as possible and then come out fully fit, raring to go at the start of next year.

“Maybe if there’s a worry about the ranking drop with so many points to defend and potentially that ranking could plummet, although she might benefit from the protected ranking.

“All of these factors have to be considered, don’t they? But at the end of the day, your health is your wealth, as they say, and that is the most important factor and she just needs to get herself fit.”

Raducanu returned to the top 35 with her run at Queen’s Club and looked set to be among the seeded players at Wimbledon, but her inactivity has resulted in a slump down the rankings as she currently sits at No 109.

If she does indeed only decide to return next year, the 23-year-old will be able to use her protected ranking to gain main draw entries into a maximum of eight events.

As for her injury, Raducanu and her team have shared little about the problem and Croft admits that with her movement key to her game, she needs to make sure his fully recovered.

The former British No 1 added: “It’s an unusual injury. I mean, I’ve had calf muscle injuries, which were not nice at all. And the minute you push off, you tweak it and it feels tight but the one thing that I’ve always thought about Raducanu, particularly when we saw her at Queen’s Club on the grass where she played such beautiful tennis, is that she’s very light on her feet. Movement has always been one of her strengths.

“She’s such a great athlete. She moves around the ball. She’s light on her feet and gets into great positions where she never looks off balance. But movement will be part of a major strength of what she brings out onto the court. That needs to be absolutely 100 per cent.”