Emma Raducanu takes ANOTHER wildcard entry in a bid to end worst run of her career after defeats in Abu Dhabi and Doha

Emma Raducanu will try to end her winless trek through the middle eastern deserts in Dubai next week, after taking yet another wildcard into a blue-chip event.

The 22-year-old has lost her last four matches and will hope for a kind draw in an event which sits at the level below the Grand Slams in terms of prestige.

She lost to Iga Swiatek at the Australian Open, Cristina Busca in Singapore (she ought to have won that one), former Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova in Abu Dhabi and in Doha was defeated by Ekaterina Alexandrova, who went on to make today’s semi-finals.

It is the worst run of Raducanu’s career but those were some tough opponents. The conventional tennis wisdom would be for her to drop down into qualifying or a lower-level event, get a few wins under her belt and return to the top table with some confidence.

But Raducanu is rarely conventional and she clearly prefers to play her way back into form at the highest level: of the last 18 events she has played, 13 have been as a wildcard.

It is an option which would not be available to most players, who are restricted to six wildcards per year. But as a former Grand Slam champion Raducanu can take as many as she likes.

Raducanu is enduring her worst sequence of results having lost four successive matches

She sits at No60 in the world and, given the ranking points available at the WTA 1000 level, a couple of wins in the UAE would get that number shooting north. 

But with nine of the top 10 expected to line up on the grid, she is at the mercy of the draw once again.

In Dubai last year, Anna Kalinskaya showed the benefit of building up momentum through qualifying, coming all the way through to the final, and it has always been peculiar that the most successful and famous qualifier of all time – Raducanu won her way into the 2021 US Open then won the whole thing – appears so averse to treading that road again.

In fairness, she was due to play qualifying in Doha last week but few withdrawals meant a wildcard spot opened up. And it is certainly difficult to turn down tennis’s equivalent of a golden ticket when available.

Raducanu remains without a coach after Nick Cavaday stepped down for health reasons. 

While the search continues, she is joined by her old friend and coach Jane O’Donoghue, who is taking more time out from her day job with the Royal Bank of Canada. As we said: things are rarely conventional where Raducanu is concerned.