Emma Raducanu withdraws from China Open because of foot injury. "I hope to be back competing as soon as i can"

Britain’s tennis star Emma Raducanu has been ruled out of the China Open. The WTA 1000 event will be held from September 25 to October 06, and some of the top players will participate to showcase their talent and secure the ultimate prize.

The tournament suffered yet another blow as Britain’s Raducanu withdrew from it. She announced the development in a post on her official account on the social media platform X--previously known as Twitter. "Hello, last week in Seoul i sprained some ligaments in my foot which unfortunately need some more time to heal. It means i can’t play in Beijing but I hope to be back competing as soon as I can," she wrote.

Raducanu became the third high-profile player after world number one Iga Swiatek and world number four Elena Rybakina to skip the competition. The British tennis star decided to skip the competition because of a fitness concern. The former world number 10 was once regarded as the next big thing, especially when she lifted the US Open title at the age of just 18 in 2021. The most impressive aspect of her triumph in the competition was the fact that she started the tournament through the qualifying round and still went all the way to lift the title after beating Leylah Fernandez in the final in straight sets with a score of 6-4, 6-3.

However, since then, she has struggled to produce positive results consistently, and one of the primary reasons for this has been her fitness concerns. The recent development will be a serious blow for Raducanu, who only returned to the court after spending nearly 12 months on the sidelines because of an injury. The Toronto-born star recently participated in the Korea Open, where she was forced to retire because of a foot injury during the quarterfinal against Russia’s Daria Kasatkina before the start of the second set.

Before Raducanu, world number one Swiatek, who would have defended her title, decided to withdraw from the competition because of ‘personal’ reasons. World number four Rybakina was also forced to withdraw from the tournament as she is still recovering from a back injury.