Emma Raducanu’s start to the 2026 season has been far from ideal, with the British star suffering two losses and just one victory.
Raducanu looked solid against Maria Sakkari at the United Cup as she fell to a three-sets loss against the Greek star.
The British number one’s first real disappointment came at the Hobart International, where she was the top seed.
Raducanu was defeated in the quarter-final by Taylah Preston, who is ranked over 100 places below her in the WTA Tour rankings.
Despite her middling start to the new season, Raducanu believes there is little pressure on her at the Australian Open.
Emma Raducanu says her lack of pre-season is the reason for her form
Raducanu played the United Cup after just a couple of weeks of preparation with new coach Francisco Roig.
She believes her lack of match fitness is the reason for her start to the season, and she is not worried ahead of the first Grand Slam of the year.
“Last year I think I did a great job of turning my season around after Indian Wells. I think I started picking up some really good momentum,” she said at her Australian Open press conference.
Emma Raducanu won her first Grand Slam too soon – Prove me wrong!
“For me, the end of 2025 was difficult, because I was hampered by a foot injury, so that’s just taken some time to recover. I didn’t get to really have a pre-season. I started training very, very late on tennis-wise.
“So because of that, I feel like I need to kind of take the pressure off of myself and not put too much pressure on and expect to be playing amazing tennis, because, you know, I’m, like, week 4 of return to play, so of practice, it’s not much at all.So I just want to keep putting in the right steps that I know are going to take me to where I want to go in the future.
“Whether that comes this week, whether it comes tomorrow, whether it comes in a couple weeks, I know it will inevitably.”
Raducanu is seeded at the Australian Open, so will not play another seeded player until at least the third round.
Emma Raducanu should be positive despite tough Australian Open draw
Raducanu has been desperate to try and claim seeded entry for a Grand Slam for the past year, so it’s ironic that her Australian Open draw has offered up a similar fate to her non-seeded Grand Slam entries.
The star will yet again likely face world number one Aryna Sabalenka in the third round of the Australian Open, which happened at Wimbledon and the US Open in 2025.
How will Emma Raducanu fare at the Australian Open after receiving this draw?
Despite the difficult hand she has been dealt, Raducanu has a reason to be positive at the Australian Open.
Raducanu has been given two very winnable games in the opening rounds of the Australian Open, where she will play Mananchaya Sawangkaew and then either Suzan Lamens or Anastasia Potapova.
If she wins both of those matches, Raducanu will not lose any ranking points at the first Grand Slam of the year.
She reached the third round in 2025, where she was comprehensively defeated by number two seed Iga Swiatek.
