Emma Raducanu will miss the 2026 US Open because of a stress fracture in her right leg, ruled out of the tournament she won as a qualifier in 2021 after consultation with her medical team concluded she would not be fit to compete in New York this August. The Guardian reported the withdrawal on 3 August 2026.

The 23-year-old sustained the stress fracture during the grass-court season. It had already forced her to pull out of Wimbledon on the eve of her opening match in late June, a withdrawal she announced late on a Sunday evening via her Instagram story, writing that she had been medically advised to stop playing. At the time, she was Britain's number one, ranked 49th in the world.

The road back has been slow. Raducanu had only recently taken her first tentative steps back on court, wearing a protective boot, when the US Open decision was made. She had rehired Andrew Richardson, the coach who guided her to that stunning run to the Flushing Meadows title five years ago, in a bid to rebuild momentum.

That momentum had been building before the injury. Raducanu reached her biggest final since her US Open triumph at Queen's Club in June 2026, a breakthrough that unfortunately triggered the setback. She had also won her first matches at Flushing Meadows since lifting the trophy, showing signs that the years of stop-start fitness struggles might finally be behind her.

They were not. A foot injury hampered her pre-season training ahead of 2026, and a post-viral illness kept her off court for two-and-a-half months after she fell unwell in early February. The grass season, when it finally arrived, delivered both her best result in years and the injury that has now cost her two Grand Slams.

Raducanu was also absent from Great Britain's team named for the Billie Jean King Cup finals, the women's international team competition, scheduled for late September 2026. Her withdrawal from Wimbledon, along with Jack Draper's injury-enforced exit on the Monday after, left 19 British players starting in the first round at the All England Club.

For Raducanu, the pattern is painfully familiar. She withdrew from the 2022 Australian Open with a hamstring injury and pulled out of mixed doubles at Wimbledon in 2024 with a sore wrist. Each comeback has been met with hope, each setback with the same question: when will the body hold?

The US Open, the stage of her greatest triumph, will go on without her. The question now is when, and whether, she can return to the level that once electrified the sport.