In a major blow to her end of season plans, 21-year-old Emma Raducanu has been forced to withdraw from the China Open in Beijing due to a foot injury. The former US Open champion retired from her Korea Open quarter-final against Daria Kasatkina on Saturday.

“Last week in Seoul I sprained some ligaments in my foot which unfortunately need some more time to heal,” the British No 2 said on Monday afternoon in a post on Twitter/X. “It means I can’t play in Beijing but I hope to be back competing as soon as I can.”

If Raducanu progressed, she would have faced home favourite and Olympic champion Qinwen Zheng, the fifth seed, in the second round. With no ranking points to defend from last season, Raducanu had targeted both events in China and said she hoped to “play as many matches as I can” before the end of the year. Raducanu secured back-to-back wins at the Korea Open, including a gruelling battle against Peyton Stearns in almost three hours.

Raducanu’s wins in Korea boosted her ranking 18 places to 54th in the world, with the opportunity for further improvement at the WTA 1000 event in Beijing. Defending China Open champion and World No 1 Iga Swiatek has also withdrawn from the tournament, citing personal reasons, which gives top seed Aryna Sabalenka the chance to close the gap in the world rankings.