Emma Raducanu signs up for inaugural ATX Open in Texas as she eyes world ranking recovery

The event marks the start of the 2023 North American hard-court swing for the British No 1, who recently made it to the second round of the Australian Open before going down in a narrow defeat against Coco Gauff.

Raducanu is one of two former US Open champions in the 32-player field alongside 2017 champion Sloane Stephens.

"We are thrilled that Emma, the youngest Grand Slam champion in the game today, will be coming to the ATX Open," Christo Van Rensburg, DropShot Series Tournament Director, said.

"We look forward to her joining Danielle [Collins], Sloane and Peyton [Stearns] for our inaugural tournament, and are very excited to know that we will be welcoming them to Austin in less than one month."

Raducanu has had to endure more disruption at the start of the year due to injury, following an already injury-plagued end to 2022.

An ankle injury suffered at the ASB Classic in Auckland nearly kept her out of the Australian Open, though she would go on to enter the main draw, winning her opener against Tamara Korpatsch in straight sets before going down to fellow young gun Gauff.

Raducanu saw her world ranking drop precipitously in 2022, down from her top-10 high at the start of the year to as low as 77th, but she remains optimistic about her prospects in the new year and doesn't have many ranking points to defend in the early part of the season.

"I've had some niggles in the past few months, and I just need to get that sorted, train, and then we'll see after that," the 20-year-old said after her Australian Open exit.

"But I'm actually just looking forward to putting in the work, and I feel, as I said before, I'm putting in a good system in place, and I'm really buying into and trusting the work that I'm doing with Sebastian and the rest of the team.

"I'm feeling good and confident that in six months time I know it's not going to be, like, the finished product, but hopefully I would have made strides."

The ATX Open will run from February 27-March 5 at Westwood Country Club in Austin and will be followed by the WTA 1000 Indian Wells Open before the swing ends with the Miami Open in Florida.