British tennis star Emma Raducanu ends her season and plans to retain coach into the 2026 season.
The British player made it to the third stage in three Grand Slam tournaments major tournaments in the current campaign.
Britain's Emma Raducanu will not compete in the last two tournaments of the year because of the illness she has been fighting for the last week and a half.
At 22 years old was scheduled to compete in tournaments in Tokyo and Hong Kong but chose to travel back to recover before starting plans for the 2026 season.
These plans are set to feature trainer Francisco Roig, as they have agreed to work together for the upcoming season.
She required blood pressure checks while playing the initial match with Ann Li in Wuhan and retired when behind 6-1 4-1 on a day with extreme humidity.
Another medical visit was necessary a visit from the doctor at this week's Ningbo Open, where she lost in three sets to Zhu Lin, a Chinese wildcard in the first round.
Raducanu was also moving far from freely in the deciding set in the match with Zhu owing to the lower back problem that has troubled her at times this year.
Such performances meant an encouraging season, in which Raducanu rose into the world's top 30 after a long gap for the first time since 2022, ended with three successive defeats.
The athlete was close to victory with three match points then was defeated by American player Jessica Pegula in the third stage in the Beijing tournament last month.
She secured 28 victories in the current season and made it to the semi-final round in Washington, but the highlight of her season was at March's Miami Open.
The British number one reached the quarter-finals of a premier WTA event, defeating eighth seed Emma Navarro on the way before losing in three sets to fourth-ranked Pegula.
She was coached by Mark Petchey from Miami until Wimbledon, with Roig taking over ahead of the US Open.
The original arrangement with Rafael Nadal's former coach was for the remainder of the year but the partnership will continue, with planned training sessions for the end of the year.
Raducanu told that her three-day trial with Roig post-Wimbledon was like a "black ops mission" as they aimed to maintain secrecy.
She came very close to defeating top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka at their first tournament together in Cincinnati in August.
The coach also accompanied Raducanu in the New York tournament, where she reached the third round prior to losing to Rybakina, champion at Wimbledon in 2022.
