Raducanu Seeded 30th at Wimbledon After Queen's Final
Get the Sports newsletter
Daily sports — scores, transfers, the storylines from the leagues you actually follow. Free.
- Raducanu reached the HSBC Championships final at Queen's Club, her deepest tour run since winning the 2021 US Open as a qualifier, winning every match without dropping a set before losing in three to Donna Vekic in the final.
- Raducanu is seeded 30th at Wimbledon and opted to skip the Eastbourne wild card to practise on the All England Club grass instead, according to Sky Sports.
- Raducanu's first half of 2026 was derailed by a severe post-viral illness that forced her to miss tournaments in Miami, Madrid, and Rome, and she suffered a first-round French Open loss to Argentina's Solana Sierra.
- Raducanu has reunited with US Open-winning coach Andrew Richardson — nicknamed 'Flex' at 6ft 7in — with the pair confirming they will work together for the rest of the season, having previously collaborated before her 2021 breakthrough.
- Tim Henman told Sky Sports the Richardson reunion is paying off, citing Raducanu's positive body language and controlled aggressive tennis at Queen's, and calling the partnership 'the first real opportunity for the relationship to flourish.'
- Raducanu, 23, said Queen's felt like a 'stepping stone' and described herself as the 'new Emma,' telling reporters she is 'back and better' after the run.
- Raducanu pushed world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka to a third-round Wimbledon thriller last year, a performance the article cites as evidence she can compete with the elite on grass.
Why it matters: British tennis has a live second-Slam storyline entering Wimbledon: Raducanu arrives as a 30th seed with her first sustained run of form in four years, and crucially with coaching stability via Richardson — the same partnership that delivered her 2021 US Open. For Sky Sports and the wider British sports audience, the combination of her home-soil seeding and a home World Cup run in prospect gives the summer genuine dual-event narrative weight.
