With the draw completed, Emma Raducanu will begin the latter part of her 2024 season at the Korea Open, where she has a fantastic opportunity to jump up the rankings.

As Raducanu is ready to compete in her first WTA Tour event since making it to the quarterfinals of the Citi Open in Washington early in August, the WTA 500 competition appears to be a difficult test for her.

Among the well-known players that were first admitted into the Seoul draw were Iga Swiatek, Elena Rybakina, and Jessica Pegula. However, following a busy few weeks for the best players in the game, there have been a number of withdrawals.

Playing on clay for the French Open, switching to grass for Wimbledon, returning to clay for the Olympic Games in Paris, and finally switching to hard courts was an arduous schedule, and Swiatek was among those petitioning with tennis officials to reduce the workload.

The biggest names in the game are expected to attend the upcoming WTA 1000 events in Beijing and Wuhan since they provide significant prize money and ranking points, but Swiatek and the other top ten players are obviously eager to manage their calendar in the last few weeks of the regular season.

Because of this, competitors with lower rankings, like Raducanu, have the opportunity to grab some important ranking points at the Korea Open, where she will face American Peyton Stearns.

Raducanu is now ranked 72nd in the WTA Rankings, while Stearns is ranked 49th.

The British player, however, will draw confidence from her lone prior encounter with Stearns, as she defeated her in Washington in her most recent regular tour match, 7-6(6), 6-2.

Raducanu has defeated American Sloane Stephens in their two prior meetings; if she can regain Stearns, she may face Stephens again.

World No. 13 Daria Kasakina might be Raducanu’s opponent in the third round as more experienced players leave, giving Raducanu more opportunity to perform.

Raducanu, who missed the second half of last year due to injury, has an incredible opportunity to break into the top 50 of the WTA Rankings by the end of the year since she has no points to defend until 2023.

Despite backlash for her decision to participate in just one warm-up event prior to losing to Sofia Kenin in the US Open first round, Raducanu would have made progress if she placed among the top 50.

In order for Raducanu to recover from her US Open setback and give herself a platform to excel in 2023, the upcoming weeks will be crucial.

“I genuinely hope to perform well in this tournament,” Raducanu declared following his defeat by Kenin in New York.

“For the remainder of the season, I’m just going to go back to the drawing board, train, and evaluate where I went wrong.

“The Slams are obviously finished for this year, but Australia won’t be back for very long.

She stated, “I probably would have liked to play a little bit more before coming into the US Open.”

Like any player, I am aware that after a string of successful matches, you feel extremely happy and as though everything comes naturally to you.

I’m able to grow from it. And, you know, take a little different approach to scheduling.

It wasn’t limited to me. I’m not really able to modify what happened; it was more of a group call.

Although Raducanu’s decision to forgo playing further events before to the US Open was criticized by former British No. 1 Tim Henman and tennis great Martina Navratilova, Raducanu now has an opportunity to overcome that mistake in judgment.