Emma Raducanu’s Wuhan Open debut came to a disappointing end when she was forced to retire with dizziness while trailing Ann Li 6-1 4-1 on Tuesday. The conditions have been brutal in Wuhan, and humidity hit around 69 per cent when Raducanu was in action.
It was another tough outcome for Raducanu during this Asian swing. She has now won just two of her five matches in this part of the season, and held match points before losing in both the Korea Open and the China Open. The British No. 1’s schedule now remains unclear following her concerning retirement, but she is still entered into a few tournaments before the season ends.
Raducanu received a wildcard into next week’s WTA 500 event in Ningbo, which has a very strong field with Jessica Pegula, Mirra Andreeva and Jasmine Paolini also signing up.
Defending champion Daria Kasatkina has already withdrawn from the tournament after ending her season early. In a candid statement, the world No. 19 announced that she hadn’t been “fine for a long time” and was taking a break before the 2026 season.
Raducanu was expected to make her debut in Ningbo last year but she picked up a foot injury in Seoul which derailed the end of her season. It now remains to be seen whether she will skip the tournament again in 2025 after her dizzy spell in Wuhan.
The world No. 30 is also on a star-studded entry list for the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, taking place from October 20 to 26. If she plays, it will be her debut at the WTA 500 tournament.
Pegula, Elena Rybakina and Naomi Osaka are also expected to play, while Qinwen Zheng will attempt to defend her title.
Raducanu is expected to end her season at the Hong Kong Tennis Open, held from October 27 to November 2.
The Brit will be keen to earn some extra ranking points before the end of the year in a bid to be seeded in time for the Australian Open in January. The top 32 players are seeded at Grand Slams, and they get protection from facing other seeds in the first two rounds.
Currently sitting at No. 30 in the world, Raducanu is already in a good position. But she’ll be keen to jump a little higher to guarantee her spot as an Australian Open seed and ensure that other players can’t push her further down the ranks.
The rankings were on Raducanu’s mind ahead of her Wuhan Open debut earlier this week. “Being seeded for Australia is a big target for me over the next few weeks,” she told Tennis365.
“I think the higher you can go, the better it is, but it is still down to the luck of the draw. I’ve just been happy with the improvements in the last few weeks I’ve made in my game, and I just want to keep going with that.”
Raducanu won’t be able to gain any extra ranking points after retiring in the first round. But if she can regroup and recover in time for her last three tournaments of the year, there will be plenty of opportunities to get some more wins under her belt before heading into the off-season.
