Emma Raducanu advanced to her first grass-court WTA final at Queen’s Club this Sunday, but after a hard-fought duel with Donna Vekic 6-0, 7-6, she suffered a loss. The British tennis player was set to compete in the Nottingham Open, which was set to start just a couple of days later, but she withdrew, saying she had changed her schedule, and the reason she was pulling out was not related to an injury. The decision drew immediate criticism, and Andy Roddick, on his Served podcast, opened by defending Raducanu before dismantling her in the same breath. 

Roddick’s defense lasted approximately as long as it took him to warm up. He then went on to criticize her after she delivered the reason behind her decision to pull out of the tournament.

“She’s like, I haven’t played much this year. And I’m going, you haven’t played much any year. You’ve never played much, right?… The reason I’m passionate about this is because she’s so good. She looked great this week. Am I being unfair?” he added. 

It was not the withdrawal from Nottingham itself that was the central issue of his argument; rather, the pattern that it stands for when it came to Emma Raducanu.

“The one time we’ve seen Emma Raducanu play every day for three weeks in her professional life, the most days for three weeks, she produced a level that won a Grand Slam,” he said. 

The 2021 US Open remains her only extended run of back-to-back tournaments in which Raducanu has competed in her professional career that resulted in a championship. Queen’s proved she could back up wins on consecutive days again. Nottingham was an opportunity to push that further, two weeks out from Wimbledon, with form already in her racket. She walked away from it. 

“I promise you, I know the value of winning and winning and winning going into a Slam… I will sacrifice something, a little wrong with your body or exhaustion, for confidence that you can win these big events. At some point, she’s going to have to play a lot of tennis. Not just one week. If I’m her coach and she’s healthy, let’s go. Keep it going in Nottingham. If you make another semi or final, are you all of a sudden one of the ten favourites to win Wimbledon? Sure,” Roddick said. 

The argument is simple: In tennis, momentum is everything, and Raducanu had it, and she could have gone all the way in  Nottingham to secure a win before the start of Wimbledon. While this serves as a disappointment for her fans, it is expected that she gets back to action at next week’s Eastbourne tournament.

Roddick’s broader point goes beyond one tournament

The Nottingham decision sits within a larger career conversation that Andy Roddick was not willing to sidestep. Over the last five years, since her US Open victory, Emma Raducanu has continued to deal with a revolving door of injuries, coaches, and restricted playing time. The statistics speak for themselves. 

She played just 36 matches in 2022, 10 in 2023, 33 in 2024, and 50 in 2025. A post-viral illness wiped out nearly three months of her 2026 season, as she has played just 16 matches in this season. The US Open 2021 was the longest continuous run of competitive tennis in her career, with the 10 matches she played at qualifying and the main singles tournament taking place over three weeks. Roddick’s reasoning is not that Nottingham would have been at ease after an intensive Queen’s week. It is that the alternative, resting with form already in her hands, carries a risk that players rarely discuss openly. 

Her reunion with Andrew Richardson, the one who helped her win the 2021 US Open before they split up days after the tournament, has already yielded her greatest success in years. Richardson was let go after just a nine-week trial contract, despite wanting to continue and having a plan in place for her development. He’s back now as her tenth coaching stint in a young career, and the impact has been immediate. 

WTA Finals in Abu Dhabi, earlier this year, and now a first grass-court final at Queen’s, have seen a dramatic improvement in the partnership, which has catapulted her to world No. 31 and a seeded spot for Wimbledon. Former British No. 1 Tim Henman, who was at Queen’s to watch the pair, said it was “pretty clear” that it was working and Raducanu’s body language had appeared more positive on court. 

Roddick wasn’t downplaying the harshness of a punishing Queen’s week. Raducanu had played three matches in two days, finished the final with strapping on her left thigh, and cited a change of schedule rather than injury when confirming the Nottingham withdrawal. He acknowledged all of it. 

“Once you find form, you press the gas sometimes, unless you’re worried about your body. She’s not 39 like Novak Djokovic,” he said. 

She was expected to play at Eastbourne, but she has withdrawn from that as well. This means the Brit will directly feature on the grass of SW19, which begins on June 29. Whether that one week at Queen’s would be sufficient match practice for the home grass grand slam was the question Roddick was not able to answer confidently, and that lack of confidence made the dig land.