Emma Raducanu has been handed a brutal draw at the Dubai Championships, as the Brit gears up for the second WTA 1000 event of the year. She retired from her first-round match against Camila Osorio at the last 1000 tournament in Qatar.

It came just days after Raducanu reached the final of the Transylvania Open, but lost in straight sets to Romanian Sorana Cirstea. Raducanu will be hoping to get her season back on track when she travels to Dubai, but she’ll have to overcome some big names if the 23-year-old is to go deep in the competition.

Qualifier Elisabetta Cocciaretto is first up for Raducanu in Dubai, with the 2021 US Open winner having at least avoided a seeded player in round two. Should she progress to the second round, it will be either Moyuka Uchijima or Karolina Muchova.

But that’s when things begin to look tricky, as it will most likely be the recently-crowned Australian Open champion, Elena Rybakina, in the third round. That’s if the two-time Grand Slam winner comes through her clash with either Tatjana Maria or Kimberly Birrell.

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It would be a monumental ask for Raducanu to make it to the quarter-finals, while the highest-ranked player on the opposite side of her quarter is Elina Svitolina. The Ukrainian would be her most likely quarters opponent, but Paula Badosa and Belinda Bencic will no doubt be in the mix as well.

Meanwhile, third seed Coco Gauff and two-time Slam finalist Jasmine Paolini are both in the same half as Raducanu. As such, they could represent Raducanu’s semi-final opponent, should she make it that far.

Things have opened up somewhat for Raducanu and her fellow Dubai Championships hopefuls, given the world No.1 and No.2 will both be absent from the tournament. Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek withdrew from the event, which in turn meant Rybakina will start as the top seed.

It’s believed Swiatek is skipping the event to help manage her schedule, having hinted at missing some 1000 tournaments last year. She said: “Last year I had trouble with making this kind of decision, but this year I’m trying to change my approach. So I think, for sure, we’ll skip some 1000 tournaments.

“Perhaps I’ll have to choose some tournaments and skip them, even if they are mandatory. The WTA has made this a madness with all these mandatory rules. It’s impossible to fit everything in the calendar. I don’t think any elite player can manage it.”