Emma Raducanu has been walking a precarious tightrope lately, balancing high expectations and unforeseen challenges. With the tennis world buzzing ahead of the Australian Open’s main draw starting Sunday, the spotlight on the British star remains intense—but not for the reasons she’d hoped. In a surprising twist, Eurosport has replaced Raducanu in their tournament promotional poster, replacing her with fellow Brit Katie Boulter. And let’s just say, fans have a lot to say about it.

The British tennis sensation has been facing an unexpected turn of events. Just when she looked completely ready for the 2025 season, Raducanu was hit by another injury setback. She was forced to withdraw from the ASB Classic in Auckland owing to a back injury sending shockwaves through her legions of fans and supporters. Now, it seems that her injuries and her time away from the sport have impacted her professionally as well, with Eurosport dropping the star player from its promotional poster. 

An Instagram user shared the updated poster for the Australian Open 2025 by the broadcaster which consists of familiar faces like Carlos Alcaraz, Aryna Sabalenka, Taylor Fritz, and Boulter. Captioning the post, the user wrote, “Eurosport have dropped Raducanu from the poster of their streaming service 👀 Katie Boulter is there instead for 2025. Interesting.” While the official reason for the exclusion of Raducanu’s face is not known, fans believe it to be a result of her back-to-back withdrawals. 

As soon as the post gained traction, several users joined the fray and shared their perspectives on the move. While many users claimed it to be Boulter’s better performance as compared to Raducanu’s, others called it a move impacted by the 2021 US Open Champion’s onslaught of injury woes. 

Emma Raducanu in hot water with Eurosport’s move

Taking to X, a user wrote, “Looks like IMG are losing the battle to keep the flop relevant… despite their best in planting stories about Emma ‘doing well’ in a practice set (note: it’s a practice set for a reason) versus Rybakina…” Emma Raducanu was recently spotted hitting with French star Caroline Garcia and the Kazakh sensation Elena Rybakina at the Melbourne venue. The visuals did not show any sign of a recurring back problem, thereby raising hopes for her Australian Open participation. However, fans believe that playing in practice sessions and official matches are different and that Raducanu needs to regain her consistency. More such reactions continued.

Another user commented, “At least she deserved it! 😉” Notably, Raducanu’s injury woes have been pointed out by experts with Rennae Stubbs being among the many to voice her opinion. Discussing Raducanu while previewing the Australian Open on ESPN, Serena Williams’ ex-coach said, “I think the most successful thing that can happen for Emma is that she doesn’t have injuries. She has to have some consistent play throughout the whole year and not default matches, not pull out of tournaments. It’s already happened in Auckland.” Similar reactions continued to follow.

“They’re only putting tennis players on the poster, makes sense really,” wrote another user. Remember, Raducanu has been on an extended hiatus from the courts since after surgeries on both wrists and one ankle. While she made a comeback in 2024, she could not depict her erstwhile dominant form and participated in only 14 tournaments, besides the BJK Cup. She also withdrew from the Korea Open after a foot injury during her quarterfinal clash against Daria Kasatkina. This further compelled her to pull out from several other tournaments during the Asian Swing as well.

One more user joined the fray, lauding Katie Boulter’s latest performances and writing, “It’s a long time coming! Boulter is number 1 british player, she deserves more attention and coverage than Raducanu.” Boulter won two titles last year at San Diego and Nottingham. On the contrary, Raducanu’s best run was only till the semi-finals of the Nottingham Open. Besides, Boulter is currently ranked as the No. 1 British player with an overall ranking of 23. Raducanu, on the other hand, is ranked at the 60th spot. 

Yet another user joined the discussion and wrote, “She’s not relevant & Boulter is a seeded player.” Now, with fans continuously lashing out at Emma Raducanu, it will be interesting to see if she will come out to respond to the criticism. Can the Brit star shut her critics with a dominant Australian Open run? Well, only time will tell.