Mayday Mayday !

Plus rien ne va en Angleterre ?.

Indeed, very little is going right anymore for the Brit Raducanu. Physical issues have piled up and prematurely cut short her 2025 season during the Asian swing: dizziness, back pain in Wuhan. A lingering foot injury since the end of the year then forced her to withdraw against Osaka at the United Cup, before a loss to Sakkari. By the way, her last win dates back to September 27 in Beijing.

The result is a completely disrupted preparation, since she mentions barely two weeks of training in an interview. Practice sessions have been heavily reduced and she explains that her body is still in a readaptation phase over the last few days. She also announced that her strategy for 2026 will be to play fewer matches in order to perform better. The cherry on top is that her long-time sponsor Nike might put an end to their partnership in favor of another brand. It’s starting to be a lot.

Her draw therefore looks like a poisoned chalice. Osorio, a pure clay-courter, has developed a taste for hard courts and is becoming more and more dangerous on this surface. Her last match against Marcinko was surprising. Such aggression, such hitting power. I hadn’t seen that from her in 2025, and I was genuinely shocked. The match was simply incredible. It shows real confidence in her game, excellent physical form, and a much more powerful brand of tennis.

Given the Brit’s problems, clearly still holding back, up against a South American on fire, I think her status as favorite is seriously under threat.

If we push the fantasy a bit further, reading between the lines of the Brit, she could very well use Adelaide as a simple warm-up for the Australian Open, deliberately limiting herself. Everything is still wide open here.