Tennis news – Can Emma Raducanu enter the top 10 and secure a place in the WTA finals at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells?

Not only will this be Raducanu’s first tournament as a major champion, but it will be her first WTA 1000 event – the next level outside of the four Grand Slam tournaments – and only the fifth time she has appeared in the WTA main draw. Tower. It’s entirely new ground for the teenager, and it offers the potential opportunity to move closer to a place in the WTA season-ending WTA Finals in Mexico and making it into the top 10 in the world rankings.

Can Raducanu enter the top 10?

After skyrocketing the rankings in New York, it’s possible Raducanu will leap again in the next fortnight. As a newcomer to the WTA Tour, she is in the unique position of having no points to defend until next summer. Others above her in the standings have to perform well at Indian Wells or they will drop down the standings. World No.21 Bianca Andreescu was the champion at Indian Wells in 2019 and will lose a lot of points unless she can do another deep race. World No.15 Angelique Kerber, who was the Indian Wells finalist in 2019, also has points to defend, while players who performed well at the rescheduled French Open 2020, like Iga Swiatek and Sofia Kenin, should lose those points this month. With so much movement, Raducanu is tentatively in the top 20 even before Indian Wells starts.

As Indian Wells is a WTA 1000 event, there are many points on offer. The winner of the tournament will get 1000 points, the finalist 650 and the semi-finalists 390.

It is impossible to predict how far Raducanu could climb, as the performances of her rivals will also have an impact on her, but the victory would likely push her close to the top 10. She is currently ranked 22nd in the world and has 2,558 ranking points. to his credit. Another 1,000 points would take her to 12th place, above Osaka, which has 3,326 points, but that doesn’t take into account that other players could move up or down depending on their performance.

Raducanu will be ranked 18th at Indian Wells, meaning she’ll get a first-round pass of the tournament. If she lost her first game, she would get 35 ranking points to add to her total. If she reaches the quarter-finals, she will get 215 points, with a maximum of 1000 points available for the champion.

Can Raducanu guarantee a place in the WTA Finals?

The top eight players in the world face off in the WTA Finals, with rankings based on annual performance rather than the overall singles rankings, which runs over a 52-week window that has currently been extended due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Raducanu is not 22 in the world, but in the WTA Finals race standings she is No. 15, with 2,282 points. Osaka is in eighth place with 2771 points, with world No.1 Ashleigh Barty in the lead with 6411 points. However, Barty and Osaka could miss the final, which could open up the possibility for two more players to go head to head in Mexico.

As it stands, if Raducanu won Indian Wells it would increase to 3282 points, which would be enough for fifth place in the WTA Finals race standings.

Raducanu will seek more ranking points after Indian Wells as she returns to Europe to compete in the Kremlin Cup in Moscow and the Transylvanian Open in Romania, her father’s birthplace. The Kremlin Cup is the last WTA 500 tournament of the season – with 470 points offered for the winner – and the Transylvanian Open is a WTA 250 tournament with 280 points for the champion.

How did the other rookie champions behave?

With such a meteoric rise this summer, Raducanu is breaking new ground, but there have been plenty of other big first-time WTA Tour winners in recent years. Since the start of 2017, there have been 10 different first-time champions – and very few have seen more success immediately after becoming Grand Slam winners.

Jelena Ostapenko won only one match at Aegon International Eastbourne after her shock victory at the French Open in 2017. Sloane Stephens initially struggled after lifting the US Open later that year, losing in the first round of the Wuhan Open, then not winning any other matches until February 2018.

Caroline Wozniacki traveled to St. Petersburg after winning the 2018 Australian Open and losing in the second round, while Simona Halep was beaten in the third round of Wimbledon after winning the 2018 French Open. Osaka almost followed her first US Open victory in 2018 with another trophy as she reached the final of the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo.

Barty took a further step forward in 2019 by winning the French Open, then switched to the grass and immediately won the Nature Valley Classic in Birmingham, beating Julia Gorges in the final.

Belinda Bencic reached the quarter-finals of the China Open after her surprise victory at the US Open in 2019, but has struggled since, as has Kenin after her victory at the Australian Open in 2020.

Swiatek only made the second round of the Gippsland Trophy after her victory at Roland Garros in 2020, but Barbora Krejcikova had a good month after winning in Paris this year as she reached the last 16 at Wimbledon and then won in Prague.

Who else is playing Indian Wells?

The women’s field will be missing big names like Barty, Osaka, Serena Williams and Aryna Sabalenka are all missing. Barty has returned to Australia to see her family as Osaka moves away from tennis and Williams recovers from the injury that kept her from competing in the US Open.

World number 2 Sabalenka was supposed to be the seed with Barty absent, but she tested positive for Covid-19 and will therefore miss the tournament.

Her withdrawal means Karolina Pliskova will be the seed.