Emma Raducanu has gained 16 spots on this week’s updated WTA rankings list as the Briton is on the edge of returning to the top-50 for the first time in over two years.
Last Monday, the 21-year-old was sitting at No. 70 in the world. But after reaching the quarterfinal at the WTA 500 tournament in Seoul, the Briton is now the 54th-ranked player.
When the season started and Raducanu launched her post-surgery comeback, she was ranked just outside the top-300 in the world. Since then, she has made a very notable jump and all the chances are that she will keep climbing up the rankings because she doesn’t have a single point to defend in the rest of 2024.
This week, the former world No. 10 was supposed to play at the WTA 1000 event in Beijing but her ongoing foot injury forced to pull out of the event. Had she managed to play there, only just one win would have probably been enough for her to get back inside the top-50 for the first time since 2022 September.
But since she can’t drop any points, it is safe to say that it is just a matter of time before she officially re-enters the top-50 club.
Emma Raducanu© X screenshot
Raducanu’s two Seoul wins led to a gain of 16 spots
In her first-round match at the Korea Open, the former world No. 10 overcame tricky opponent Peyton Stearns 7-6 (4) 7-6 (5) but also very challenging conditions.
“I’m proud to have made it through to the next round. Thank you to everyone for sticking around and watching us. It was tough, it was very humid, the balls were bouncing around a lot. It was a tough match to get through. I haven’t played many matches in the last few months and Peyton is a really good player in really good form, so I’m pretty pleased,” she said following her opening Seoul win.
In the round-of-16, the 21-year-old also saw off No. 8 seed Yuan Yue 6-4 6-3. But then, she was hit with bad luck as a foot injury forced her to retire while down by a set to Daria Kasatkina in the quarterfinal.
In Beijing, Raducanu will start against a qualifier and hopefully she won’t be bothered by the same foot issue that ended promising Seoul run.