The 2026 US Open is edging closer, but the season’s last Grand Slam has already lost two more notable entrants as the withdrawal list continues to grow.

Main-draw singles play at the 146th edition of the event begins on Sunday 30 August and runs through Sunday 13 September, when the men’s final is scheduled to close the tournament. The hard-court major is held at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York. Carlos Alcaraz and Aryna Sabalenka are the defending men’s and women’s champions.

At present, seven players have withdrawn across the men’s and women’s main-draw singles entry lists.

Emma Raducanu, the 2021 US Open champion who famously lifted the title as an 18-year-old qualifier ranked 150th, will not play this year because of a stress fracture in her right leg. The issue has kept the 23-year-old Brit out of action since her Queen’s Club Championships final defeat in June. She had already withdrawn from Toronto and Cincinnati, and she has not yet commented on pulling out of the US Open.

Sebastian Korda also confirmed his absence after revealing last week that he had undergone back surgery. His withdrawal was confirmed on Monday.

“It’s been four months off-court managing pain in my back with a lot of pressure on my sciatica,” Korda wrote in an Instagram post.

“After different treatments we decided to have a swift surgery that has finally relieved the pain. What a relief.

“Now it is time to recover, heal and get back to work. Thanks everyone for the support. See ya’ll soon!”

The 26-year-old American has not competed since his four-set loss to Martin Landaluce at the Miami Open in March, a match that came after he beat Carlos Alcaraz in the previous round.

Raducanu is now the sixth woman on the withdrawal list, while Korda remains the only man to pull out so far.

Alex Eala capped a memorable week at the Washington Open by overturning Jessica Pegula in a dramatic final that was delayed by thunderstorm disruption. The WTA 500 title match was pushed back a day, and when play resumed on Monday, Pegula held a set and had the second set on serve, putting her in position as the clear favorite.

Instead, the match shifted sharply. Pegula’s level dipped, Eala seized control, and the Filipina produced a composed finish to win the last two sets 6-4, 6-0. The result handed Eala the first WTA title of her career and left Pegula to assess a performance shaped by unforced errors and difficulty handling Eala’s serve.

Pegula spoke about that challenge in her post-match press conference, where she described how the final unfolded from her perspective.

“For whatever reason it felt like I was returning much better yesterday than I was today. I do feel like today she was going more for percentage than trying to go bigger and hit her spot, so I was seeing less second serves,” said Pegula.

“In the warm-up, I think everyone that plays her would probably be working on a slower serve because her serve is definitely slower and you always practice how the person plays, so if they have a big serve I am practicing with people who are hitting their serve bigger, so I was trying to do more of that today which didn’t really seem to help very much!”

Both players now move on to the Canadian Open, with their campaigns expected to begin on Wednesday’s order of play. Eala, now world No 20 after her Washington victory, will meet Alycia Parks in the second round after a first-round bye. Parks advanced by beating qualifier Victoria Jiménez Kasintseva and enters the match ranked 41 places below Eala, though she already owns a win over the 21-year-old, having beaten her 0-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the first round of the Australian Open at the start of the 2026 season.

Pegula will try to respond against Magdalena Frech in Toronto after the Pole defeated Léolia Jeanjean in her opening match.

Former British No 1 Greg Rusedski believes Emma Raducanu has every reason to be worn down by the repeated setbacks that have disrupted her 2026 season.

Raducanu has been out since suffering a stress fracture in her right leg after her defeat to Donna Vekic in the Queen’s Club Championships final in June. That injury forced her to pull out of Wimbledon on the eve of the event, and she then withdrew early from the WTA 1000 tournaments in Toronto and Cincinnati. It has now also been confirmed that she will miss the 2026 US Open, which begins on Sunday 30 August.

The 2021 US Open winner is currently ranked 49th and has managed only 21 matches this season, with her record standing at 11-10.

On his Off Court With Greg Rusedski podcast, the former world No 4 spoke at length about the difficulties Raducanu faces when trying to build momentum.

“I remember Andy Roddick questioning when she said this year, ‘I wanna play less. I don’t want to play more’. And Roddick’s like… you’ve gotta play more. And this is from a former world No 1 who sees the game exceptionally well,” said the 1997 US Open finalist.

“I kind of agree with him. You’ve gotta be able to sustain and play and build and have that continuity. It’s been stop, start, stop, start. No matter how great a champion you are, it’s very difficult.

“Emma is still so, so young. So you’re like, okay, there should be at least another five years till you’re 30. So I think if she can solve that problem and find a way, who knows, but you’ve got to have that insatiable desire to want to.

“Jane O’Donoghue, who is a great coach and helps run everything in there, so there are good people involved. They will be all trying to find a solution. Let’s do this, that, and the other.

“If you’re an athlete, your health is your wealth. If you can’t stay healthy long enough, no matter how great a player you are, you just won’t have the results or career you want to have.”