Former US Open champion Emma Raducanu booked her place in the main draw of this month’s Australian Open after American Lauren Davis withdrew from the year's first Grand Slam due to a shoulder injury, organisers announced on Wednesday.
Raducanu returned to action at the Auckland Classic on Tuesday, where she beat Elena-Gabriela Ruse. She was on the sidelines due to wrist and ankle surgeries and dropped down to number 301 in the world and her protected ranking was not good enough for direct entry at the Australian Open.
The 21-year-old also didn’t get a wildcard and was set to take a similar path as her 2021 US Open campaign when she became the first player in the Open Era to clinch a grand slam title after starting out in the qualifying rounds.
However, the exit of Davis, bearing in mind that Karolina Muchova, Petra Kvitova, Irina-Camelia Begu and Caty McNally have also pulled out, cleared the way for Raducanu in the main draw of the January 14-28 major.
"I feel reborn in a way. I feel fresh, ready, happy, excited. Overall I’m feeling positive and lighter. I actually think I’m a better tennis player than I was before the break. In practice over the last few weeks, I’m hitting the ball really well," Raducanu remarked earlier.
"Physically I’m pushing things that I wasn’t doing before. In my body, I actually have confidence, which is really nice, and tennis-wise I feel good, too. It was so hard, especially the first few months.
"When you’re so used to being active and moving around all the time, then to all of a sudden have everything just cut off from you. I had two wrists and one foot injured, so I couldn’t even use crutches. It was difficult being that immobile. But it reignited the fire to get back out there competing."