"Emma Raducanu is becoming the Andy Murray of women's tennis" - Fans slam Brit 'embarrassingly' accepting Dubai main draw wildcard

Emma Raducanu receiving a main draw wildcard for the 2025 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Champions has sparked reactions from tennis fans. They have taken umbrage to the Brit opting not to play the qualifiers.

Raducanu has had a poor start to the 2025 season. She kicked off her season at the Australian Open, where although she showed some positive signs early on, the Brit was decimated by Iga Swiatek 6-1, 6-0 in the third round. Since then, things have gone downhill for the 2021 US Open champion, who lost in the opening rounds in Singapore, Abu Dhabi and most recently, Qatar.

Hoping to end the worst losing run of her career, Emma Raducanu has accepted a main draw wildcard for the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. She had earlier accepted the main draw wildcards of the Abu Dhabi Open and the Qatar Open.

Fans were outraged by the Brit accepting another main draw wildcard rather than playing the qualifiers and gaining some momentum. One fan called Emma Raducanu the Andy Murray of women's tennis, alluding to the latter picking wildcards to enter tournaments in the twilight years of his career.

"She's becoming the Murray of women tennis, wasting wc for someone who needs who to feed their starving family somewhere in the tundra," the fan said.

Another fan called the situation:

"That’s embarrassing at this point."

Another added:

"This is getting ridiculous at this point," the fan said.

Here are some other reactions from tennis fans:

"Three certainties in life; Death, Taxes and Emma Raducanu wildcards," a fan quipped.

"Girl is allergic to playing qualies," a fan joked.

"Hm wouldn’t qualies be better? Emma’s a good player but she needs more match practice, not live up to her Round2Canu nickname," a fan opined.

Raducanu will also bring a familiar face on board as she looks to shake things up.

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Emma Raducanu will bring Jane O'Donoghue on board as coach for the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships

Emma Raducanu - Source: Getty

Emma Raducanu will bring former tennis player Jane O'Donoughue, with whom she has worked with in the past, on board as her coach. The Brit had recently split up with Nick Cavaday.

Though Raducanu was showing progress under Cavaday, he had to leave her side after 14 months as the extensive tennis schedule was taking a toll on his body.

"I am very happy to have been able to work with Emma over the last 14 months," said Cavaday (via BBC). "At this moment in time, it's important for me to spend some more time at home and prioritise getting back to full health which is hard to do with the extensive calendar."

Meanwhile, the tennis fraternity had speculated about the possibility of Andy Murray or Goran Ivanisevic becoming Raducanu's next coach.