Emma Raducanu has already pulled out of the next two WTA 1000 events because of injury, yet her world ranking has still moved upward.

The 2021 US Open champion has not competed since her 0-6, 6-7(6) defeat to Donna Vekic in the Queen’s Club Championships final on 14 June. A right leg injury later forced her to withdraw from the 2026 Wimbledon Championships on the eve of the event.

When she announced that decision, Raducanu said: “I’ve done everything possible to try to get to the start line tomorrow but after a final scan tonight, the niggle I’ve been managing has developed into a stress fracture and I’ve been medically advised to stop pushing through,” Raducanu said as she announced her withdrawal.

“Playing at Wimbledon, in front of a home crowd, means everything to me, so this is really difficult to process.”

She was later seen on crutches, and the injury has since been identified as a grade-four stress fracture in her shin. Earlier this month, she withdrew from both the Canadian Open in Montreal and the Cincinnati Open as a precaution.

Raducanu has not confirmed when she will return, although she remains on the entry list for the US Open, which begins on 20 August.

Her career has been repeatedly interrupted by physical problems. She had surgery on both wrists and one ankle in May 2023, ending that season. She also finished her 2025 campaign early after issues in China, and her build-up to 2026 was affected by a foot bone injury that limited training.

Despite the absence, Raducanu climbed in the latest WTA Rankings on Monday. She moved from No 38 to No 37 with 1,299 points after Jacqueline Cristian dropped from 36th to 41st. Raducanu was No 23 in March, her highest position since her US Open title points fell away in September 2022. Her career-best ranking remains No 10, reached in July 2022.

Alex Eala has given herself a strong chance to keep moving up the WTA Rankings over the coming weeks, with the US Open now shaping as the next major checkpoint in her rise.

Her grass-court season was the springboard. Eala opened by winning the Birmingham Open before producing the best Grand Slam run of her career at Wimbledon, where she defeated defending champion Iga Swiatek en route to the fourth round. Those results lifted her position in the rankings and carried her into the North American hard-court swing with fresh belief.

The numbers are also working in her favor. Eala has only 80 ranking points to defend between now and the end of the US Open, which creates an opportunity to add enough new points to push inside the top 20 for the first time in her career.

Her next assignment is a WTA 500 debut in Washington, where Jessica Pegula is expected to be the top seed. Naomi Osaka is also entered there, while Eala could also face a rematch with Jasmine Paolini, the player who ended her Wimbledon run.

From Washington, Eala is due to move on to the Canadian Open, a WTA 1000 event that offers a larger points haul. The same applies to Cincinnati, another WTA 1000 tournament that follows next month. Even a modest run across those events could leave her close to the top 20 before New York begins.

Eala reached the second round in New York last year, and matching a second successive Grand Slam last-16 run would take her beyond the 2,000-point mark for the first time in her career.

After Wimbledon, she said: “There are so many positives,”

“My confidence” in that stretch is clear, and the projection here is that she could finish the US Open somewhere between No 20 and No 15.

Novak Djokovic’s march to the Wimbledon semi-finals earlier this month revived a familiar argument, one that still resists a simple conclusion.

At 39, Djokovic once again showed why he belongs among the game’s elite. Had Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz not been so outstanding over the last two-and-a-half years, the Serbian might well be edging toward 30 Grand Slam titles by now.

Instead, he has remained on 24 majors since lifting his latest trophy at the 2023 US Open. With every Grand Slam that passes, the prospect of a 25th title looks more remote.

Even so, Djokovic continues to sit above most of his rivals in the men’s game. That reality has prompted some to argue that the players chasing him are failing to meet the level required to truly test the veteran champion.

Felix Auger-Aliassime was the latest top 10 player to fall short against him, losing a gripping Wimbledon quarter-final to the seven-time All England Club winner. Their five-hour and 15-minute contest underlined Djokovic’s remarkable endurance, while also renewing debate over the standard among the current challengers.

Patrick Mouratoglou, the former coach of Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka, offered a strong response to that discussion on LinkedIn, saying the Serbian’s achievements should not be diminished.

“Every time Novak Djokovic beats a Top 10 player, I read the same comment: “The Top 10 isn’t as strong as it used to be.” I completely disagree,” he wrote.

“People seem to forget who Novak Djokovic is. He is the greatest player our sport has ever seen. And the greatest competitor.

“At 39, of course he’s no longer as fast as he was. His movement isn’t the same, his reaction time isn’t the same. That’s normal. But you don’t lose your tennis, you lose speed, you don’t lose your understanding of the game, your anticipation, your decision-making or the ability to perform under pressure. Those qualities are still there.

“That’s why he can still beat the best players in the world. His five-set victory over Felix Auger-Aliassime at Wimbledon is another example.

“Some people saw it as proof that today’s Top 10 isn’t strong enough. I saw something completely different; I saw one of the greatest competitors in the history of sport finding a way to win another huge match.”

Mouratoglou also pointed to Djokovic’s early-round form at Wimbledon, adding: “What impressed me even more at Wimbledon was his level in the early rounds. Against Stefanos Tsitsipas, I thought Novak played his best tennis in a long time. Probably the best I’ve seen since his Australian Open semifinal victory over Jannik Sinner. After that, his level dropped.

“At the same time, Sinner kept improving round after round. Going into their semifinal, I still believed Novak could raise his level again because he knew exactly what would be required to challenge Jannik over five sets. In the end, Sinner was simply too strong.

“But reaching another Wimbledon semifinal at 39 and continuing to defeat the very best players tells me one thing; Never underestimate greatness. Especially when it belongs to someone who has built his entire career on competing better than anyone else.”