"She struggled with her foot for the end of last year” - Team captain Tim Henman opens up on why Raducanu pulled out of United Cup debut

Tim Henman has disclosed the injury that caused Emma Raducanu to pull out of her opening match in the United Cup against Naomi Osaka, linking it to a foot injury she has been dealing with a foot injury since the end of last year.

It was a triumphant start for Great Britain. This is despite not being able to put forward their British number one's. Jack Draper was set to make his debut alongside Raducanu but has been forced to miss the Australian swing due to his persistent arm injury picked up at Wimbledon last year. Raducanu also had some injury problems which halted her 2025 campaign slightly early, but even then she was expected to feature in Perth.

In the end, it would not matter with Great Britain picking up a crucial 2-1 win over Japan. Billy Harris got the ball rolling with a solid performance against Shintaro Mochizuki, winning 7-6 (4), 6-3. Raducanu's replacement, Katie Swan, would have the challenging task to come up against four-time Grand Slam champion Osaka. After putting up a good fight in the first set, Osaka ran away with victory 7-6 (4), 6-1. It would all come down to a very tense doubles clash, with Olivia Nicholls and Neal Skupski managing to just come out victorious 7-5, 4-6, 10-7.

The former world number four would clear the air surrounding Raducanu's sudden withdrawal in the contest. It was unclear why the former US Open champion had pulled out at first, with an injury concern the reason for this.

“Yeah, she struggled with her foot for the end of last year,” Henman said. “The improvement that she’s made has been fantastic. She’s been practising in London, really only doing static drills, to be out on the practice court and moving and playing games. She is very close.

Great Britain return to action a day later on January 5, taking on Greece who also began with a win over the Japanese. It is a straight shootout to decide who will have an automatic route into the knockout phase, with Raducanu's availability being a big positive for the match against Maria Sakkari. 

Henman has not given a definitive answer on whether she will be out on the court making her long awaited United Cup debut. “In terms of tomorrow, it’s still a little bit up in the air," he commented. "We’re kind of forced to put Emma on the list because if we didn’t do that, then that only gives us one option. When we get back tonight, we’ll discuss it as a team.”

On the other side, it was a positive outing for Swan, who pushed the former world number one. Henman was very complimentary about her showing. “I think Katie did such a good job today," stated Henman. "You think about her journey over the last 12, 18 months, to be out there against a Grand Slam champion on a big stage like that in a huge event representing her country, I thought her performance was brilliant.”

Raducanu has not stepped out onto the court since her retirement in the opening round of the Ningbo Open back on October 14 against Lin Zhu. In that match, she was struggling with a back problem, thus the retirement. She and Great Britain will be hoping that tomorrow's fixture against Greece does not come too soon for the British number one.