Emma Raducanu withdraws from Wimbledon due to injury

EMMA RADUCANU HAS pulled out of Wimbledon after a scan showed her leg injury has become a stress fracture.

The British number one addressed the media at the All England Club on Sunday after days of speculation regarding her fitness and said she was planning to take on Antonia Ruzic on Court One on Monday lunchtime.

But the situation changed late in the evening, with Raducanu accepting she would be forced to miss her home grand slam for the second time in four years.

Writing on Instagram, the 23-year-old said: “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but sadly I’ve had to withdraw from this year’s Wimbledon.

“I’ve done everything possible to try to get to the start line tomorrow, but after a final scan tonight, the niggle I’ve been managing has developed into a stress fracture, and I’ve been medically advised to stop pushing through.

“Playing at Wimbledon, in front of a home crowd, means everything to me, so this is really difficult to process.

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“I want to thank you all for your support and encouragement. Especially at a time like this, it is invaluable. I look forward to seeing you when I’m back.”

The alarm was raised when Raducanu was reportedly spotted wearing a protective boot on Wednesday.

She did not take to the practice courts until Saturday, when she wore strapping on her lower right leg and cut short a session against Russian Anna Kalinskaya after moving gingerly and losing four games in a row.

All eyes were on Raducanu during her session with hitting partner Alexis Canter on Sunday morning, and that appeared to be more positive, despite the former US Open champion not fully testing out her movement.

“I’m going to do everything with my team in terms of treatment,” said Raducanu at her press conference, where she revealed she had been battling the issue since before her run to the final at Queen’s Club two weeks ago.

“That’s the plan right now, to play. I have a lower leg niggle that I’ve been dealing with since before Queen’s, actually, from the back end of the clay-court season.

“Queen’s, during that week, was a lot of load for me. Five matches after having not competed for a while. But I’m just managing it with my team as best as I possibly can, exhausting all options and doing what we can.”

Raducanu smiled and laughed through her practice session on Sunday, raising hopes that she could at least take to the court.

“Yesterday I played for an hour before playing with Anna,” she said. “I think everyone knows I took a few days off, I didn’t practise. The first session, I was just a little bit tentative, I’d say, hesitant. Today I did feel better on the court, so that’s a positive sign.”

This will be a bitter blow in what has been another disrupted year. Raducanu was hampered by a foot problem in pre-season and then sidelined for two-and-a-half months with a post-viral illness in the spring.

“I had a great week at Queen’s,” said Raducanu, who previously missed Wimbledon in 2023 following surgery on both wrists and one ankle.

“All I want to do is to keep building on that momentum. I’ve had a tough start to the season, a lot of time out. I have great people around me. I think that’s one thing that’s really been helping in this latest setback.”

Raducanu had said she was willing to risk potentially making the problem worse to play Wimbledon, but, ultimately, that has not proved possible, and she now faces another spell on the sidelines.