Emma Raducanu has been handed a tricky start to the Abu Dhabi Open, where she will face 2023 Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova in the first round.
The Brit, who crashed out of the Singapore Open earlier this week in a three-set slugfest to world No. 101 Cristina Bucsa, was initially given a qualifying wildcard but had been upgraded to the main draw.
The new wildcard was awarded after a flurry of withdrawals due to injury, with Raducanu hoping to bounce back without a permanent coach in place.
Nick Cavaday left her side to prioritise his health, while Raducanu has temporarily been working with fitness trainer Yutaka Nakamura as her lead, who has accompanied her to Abu Dhabi.
If Raducanu does overcome Vondrousova in their first-round clash, she will meet fourth seed Yulia Putintseva in the second round, who has been given a bye.
Top seed Elena Rybakina has also been given a bye into the next round and will face a qualifier. While one of the highlights of the draw is a clash between Ons Jabeur and Jelena Ostapenko.
Raducanu was set to play qualifiers for the first time since her 2021 US Open triumph, but avoided participating in the preliminary rounds and was automatically entered into the main draw.
Despite the world No. 56 losing last time out to Bucsa when she was the bookies’ favourite to win the Singapore Open, the 22-year-old remained upbeat about her efforts in Asia.
“I have the positives from this week, coming here on my own with Yutaka and my mom, but I’m really proud of how I dealt and handled myself this week,” she said. “I feel OK. I feel like I have certain things we all manage as the year goes on.”
“I think it’s pretty early in the season. For me to be playing this kind of match, all I need is time on the court and a match-competitive situation, which I got today. I got it in abundance, over three hours of it.
“So for me, it’s really valuable because every match I play, I feel like it’s a win. And I fought really hard. I gave everything. So I just got to keep building and moving on.”
Raducanu’s path in Abu Dhabi after Vondrousova and Putintseva would see her take on either Belinda Bencic, Rebecca Sramkova, Polina Kudermetova or Liumila Samsonova in the quarter-finals.
She could potentially face Rybakina, Ostepenko or Jabeur in the semis, while the likes of Paula Badosa, Daria Kasatkina and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova await in the opposite side of the draw.