Emma Raducanu’s continued refusal to step back down to play in qualifiers has confused Andy Roddick, who feels the 2021 US Open champion is making a mistake.
The 2021 US Open champion opted to skip the Olympics due to the change in surface back to clay heading into the hardcourt season.
She was expected to kick on afterwards, but her progress was stunted after being snubbed from wildcard invites for Toronto and Cincinnati.
Raducanu decided against playing in qualifiers for either event, choosing instead to focus more on practicing and getting ready for the US Open.
Naomi Osaka was also snubbed a wildcard invite for Cincinnati, but the four-time major champion played through the qualifiers for the Masters 1000 event
Roddick called it ‘strange’ that Raducanu didn’t follow suit in dropping back down the qualifying rounds given her lack of events.
And the former American tennis star felt ‘validated’ in his opinion after seeing Osaka play the qualifiers.
Raducanu… I loved what she was building through Washington and then she decided she wasn’t going to play qualifiers in any of the tournaments, which is even stranger when you see someone like Naomi Osaka put pride on the side and go play qualifiers in Cincinnati,” Roddick said on the Served with Andy Roddick podcast.
