Injured Emma Raducanu pulls out Of Wimbledon on eve of opening match

In a massive blow to home fans, British tennis star Emma Raducanu withdrew from Wimbledon on Sunday evening after a medical scan revealed a stress fracture in her right leg. The sudden exit leaves the grass-court Grand Slam without its highest-profile domestic drawcard just hours before the tournament gets underway.The 2021 US Open champion announced her agonizing decision on Instagram. The 23-year-old was scheduled to headline the opening day action on No. 1 Court on Monday against Croatia's Antonia Ruzic.

"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," Raducanu wrote. "I've been medically advised to stop pushing through.

Playing at Wimbledon, in front of a home crowd, means everything to me, so this is really difficult to process."The physical setback comes right on the heels of Raducanu playing some of her finest, most fluent tennis since her historic fairytale triumph in New York five years ago. She had recently stormed into the final of the Queen's Club grass-court warm-up event, where she eventually finished runner-up to Donna Vekić.

Earlier on Sunday afternoon, during a packed pre-tournament press conference, Raducanu had expressed strong optimism about participating, admitting she first felt the discomfort during the preceding clay-court swing before the intense grass schedule aggravated it."Queen’s, during that week, was a lot of load for me," she had noted. "Five matches after having not competed for a while. But I’m just managing it with my team as best as I possibly can."Raducanu has famously struggled with persistent fitness and injury problems since becoming the first qualifier in tennis history to capture a Grand Slam title at age 18. While she is yet to win a standard tour-level tournament outside of that US Open crown, her resurgent form on grass had raised massive hopes of a deep run at the All England Club this year.