Raducanu withdraws from Wimbledon hours before home Grand Slam begins

Emma Raducanu withdrew from Wimbledon on Sunday after a final scan showed the “niggle” she had been managing had become a stress fracture in her lower right leg. The British No. 1 pulled out on the eve of her first-round match, leaving the Championships without its highest-profile home player just hours before the 2026 tournament was due to begin.

Raducanu had been scheduled to face Croatia’s Antonia Ružić on Monday lunchtime on Court One. She addressed the media earlier on Sunday at the All England Club and said she was planning to play, then posted her withdrawal on Instagram that evening after spending the day trying to prove her fitness. She said she had been medically advised to stop pushing through the pain, a blunt reminder of how quickly a small issue can become a stress injury when elite players are pressed to keep going.

The timing sharpened the sense of strain around a 23-year-old who remains one of British tennis’s biggest draws. Raducanu is the 2021 US Open champion, world No. 33 in WTA rankings, and the No. 30 seed at Wimbledon. The tournament’s official women’s singles preview had even flagged her as a possible third-round opponent for one of the top seeds, a sign of how central she was to the shape of the draw before a ball was struck.

Her withdrawal followed a fragile build-up. Raducanu reached the Queen’s Club final in June, but reports during the week said she had not trained for four days, had been seen with a protective boot or strapping on her right leg, and cut short a practice session with Anna Kalinskaya on Saturday. Those signs fed the uncertainty around whether she would be ready for a home Slam that means more to her than any other. Raducanu said playing at Wimbledon in front of a home crowd “means everything” to her and thanked supporters for their encouragement.

The injury also means she will miss Wimbledon for the second time in four years because of physical problems, a pattern that has increasingly framed her career through recovery windows as much as results. With Wimbledon running from Monday, June 29, to Sunday, July 12, 2026, her exit removes a major British storyline from the women’s draw and again puts the burden of expectation back under the spotlight.