On June 10, Emma Raducanu was ranked outside the top 200 on the WTA tour. She was still working her way back into form after several 2023 surgeries, including to both of her wrists. After a fairly good run over the last two months, she has jumped to No. 69 and that will be good enough to get her into the US Open at the end of August without needing a wild card or to go through qualifying.

What her current ranking is not good enough to do, however, is to get her into a non-Grand Slam field. For the US Open, the draw will feature 128 players. For Masters 1000 events, the field is 56 players. This means for the upcoming Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati, which runs from August 12 through 19, the Brit would need a wild card to get into the main draw or work her way through qualifying.

The latter she might still be able to do if she chooses to do so. The draw has not yet been announced so tennis fans cannot be sure that Raducanu plans on being in Cincinnati. One thing is sure, though, and that is that she will not be getting one of the four wild cards.

Those were announced earlier this week and went to Caroline Wozniacki, 2019 US Open winner Bianca Andreescu, and two Americans, Caroline Dolehide and Peyton Sterns. Raducanu could have been a logical choice, too, as she won the US Open in 2021. To be fair, Dolehide and Sterns both are ranked higher than Raducanu currently.

Should the Brit not play in Cincinnati, she is not currently scheduled to play any more events before the US Open. She did not play in the Paris Olympics – she chose to skip the Olympics to work on her ranking – or in the Canadian Open. She played three matches at the Citi Open before losing to Paula Badosa in the quarterfinals.

This would mean that Emma Raducanu might be a bit rusty in her attempt to win a second US Open. She would have only played three matches between Wimbledon in early July and the US Open in late August.

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