Raducanu set to make much awaited return to tennis action
US Open Champion Emma Raducunu will make her much awaited return to competitive tennis at the dawn of the New Year in Auckland.
She will play in the ASB Classic in New Zealand alongside Coco Gauff and former Australian Open champion Caroline Wozniacki in what is a relatively low 250 level event on the main WTA Tour.
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Auckland has a history of attracting decent names due to a sizeable budget for appearance fees, and has hosted Serena Williams in the recent past.
Raducanu is waiting to hear if he will be awarded a wild card for the main draw of the Australian Open, which begins on January 14.
He is currently six places away from making the main draw with his injury-protected entry ranking of 103, well above his current official listing of 296.
Emma Raducanu’s return to action has already been agreed as she looks to climb the rankings.
If he were given one of the remaining prime spots it would mean he would avoid trying to qualify in the second week of January for Melbourne and open up options to get more caps elsewhere. These would include playing WTA tournaments in Adelaide or Hobart.
The player was in Hong Kong last week but is expected to continue her preparations at the National Tennis Center in Roehampton.
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She has not played since April in Stuttgart, after which she underwent a small operation on both wrists and the ankle.
Her situation getting onto the field in Melbourne has been complicated by an unusually high number of players seeking to return using the injury-protected classification system. These include Rafael Nadal and Naomi Osaka among the anticipated list of returning stars.