Emma Raducanu set to return at the United Cup in January

Emma Raducanu will return to tennis at the United Cup, a team event held in Australia in the first week of January 2027. The British player has not competed since June because of a stress fracture in her shin, a small crack in the bone caused by repeated strain.

Her comeback is possible because of a special ranking. Players who have been out with injury for at least six months can apply for one, giving them a protected position that lets them enter tournaments they could not otherwise reach. Raducanu's application for a special ranking of 38 has been approved, according to BBC Sport.

Her actual world ranking is 107, and she is currently the fifth-best British player. The special ranking gives her a route back into bigger events. She can use it to enter eight tournaments next year, including two Grand Slams, the four biggest events in tennis, and five WTA 1000 events, the tier just below the Slams.

The United Cup runs from 1 to 10 January and features 18 national teams. It mixes men's and women's players, so there is room for both tours to shine in one competition. Britain will play Australia and France in group matches in Sydney.

The British squad is Raducanu, Arthur Fery, Francesca Jones, Jan Choinski, Neal Skupski and Olivia Nicholls. With her ranking of 38, Raducanu counts as Britain's number one for the purposes of the event, and she will play alongside Fery, who is the country's top-ranked man in the squad.

Her last few months have been hard going. In June she lost the grass-court final at Queen's Club to Croatia's Donna Vekic, and she then withdrew from Wimbledon on the eve of her opening match, two weeks after that final. The injury followed.

She began a gradual return to training in early September. Her return to competition will come after a long break, and the United Cup gives her a chance to test her body against players from around the world in a team setting, where each match counts toward the national result.

For British fans, the story is one of patience. A player who has been out since June is coming back through a team event rather than a full singles schedule, and the next few weeks of practice will show how her shin holds up under match play.