Tennis News: Elena Rybakina, Emma Raducanu and Ben Shelton

Elena Rybakina has had a fairly terrible 2024. She has been able to maintain her top-five ranking, but just barely. She also finally split from coach Stefano Vukov, who allegedly was verbally abusive to the player and probably had a long-term effect on her mental approach. Rybakina also has retired or withdrawn from double-digit tournaments.

She has not played since the US Open in September where she withdrew before her second-round match. Since Wimbledon in July, she has played just two matches. One might have wondered if she might just take the rest of the year off and start fresh in 2025.

Instead, Rybakina appears set to play in next month's WTA Finals as well as the Billie Jean King Cup later in November. This is according to Kazakh national team captain Yuri Schukin. In a statement, Schukin said, "Currently, our athletes are preparing to perform against the Korean team." Rybakina is included in the list of players on the team.

Elena Rybakina seems to be back, Emma Raducanu is not, and Ben Shelton adds to his bank account

As far as the WTA Finals, Schukin said, "The leader of our team, Elena Rybakina, plans to play at the WTA Finals tournament...Now Elena feels well, and if she manages to show a confident game in Riyadh, she is determined to play in the matches against the Korean team (at the BJK Cup)."

One player who will not be playing an event any time soon is Emma Raducanu. She is an oft-injured player. She likely needs to learn availability for playing in a tournament is a talent too. She did require surgery on both wrists and one of her ankles in 2023, but she has had an inconsistent return to playing in 2024 after suffering various ailments.

She appears to currently be struggling with a ligament injury suffered at the Korea Open. Since then, though, she has withdrawn from the China Open, Wuhan Open, a couple of other events in China, and next week's Hong Kong Open. Her WTA season is done. The question now is whether she will be healthy enough to play for Great Britain at the Billie Jean King Cup in November.

In happier news, at least for one player, Ben Shelton is a lot richer after winning the Ultimate Tennis Showdown event in Frankfurt, Germany. He won $377,400 in the non-ATP event. That is, financially speaking, is most successful tournament of the year.

Now, Shelton needs to work his way back up the ATP rankings. He has fallen to 23 after getting close to the top 10. Many expect him to be the next great American player. He just needs to prove that now.

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