The British number one Emma Raducanu has withdrawn from the Great -Britain team for the Billie Jean Jean Jean King Cup final, so that she can play on the WTA tour instead.
Raducanu has offered a joker sign for the Korea Open in Seoul and has decided that tournament prioritizing over playing for her country in the eight-team finals in Shenzhen, China.
The 22-year-old believes that playing on the tour will be better for the long-term development of her game and her young collaboration with the new coach Francisco Roig.
Roig started working with Raducanu in Cincinnati last month and was also in New York, where she reached the third round of the US Open.
Raducanu also missed the qualifying round of Billie Jean King Cup in The Hague in April, so that she could train with her then coach Mark Petchey in Los Angeles.
The decision is a big blow to the chance of success of Great Britain in Shenzhen, because Raducanu won all three of her singles competitions when GB reached the semi-final of the competition in Malaga last year.
There is a considerable anger within the LTA in the decision of Raducanu, which was passed on to them on Thursday.
“Of course we are disappointed. We believe that we have a great team and we look forward to competing in Shenzhen,” said a LTA spokesperson in a short explanation.
World number 89 Fran Jones has been added to the team and will travel to China with Katie Boulter, Sonay Kartal and Jodie Burrage next week.
Captain Anne Koothavong can bring in another player if she wishes.
Great Britain are the first in action in a quarterfinals against Japan on September 18.
Ironically, the International Tennis Federation brought the date of the final two months ahead to try to attract more of the top players to play.
The thinking was that players played more often in the final in Shenzhen at the start of a series of tournaments in Asia instead of returning to China in November as soon as the regular season is over.
Raducanu will have ranking points to defend in Seoul, after he reached the quarterfinals last year. But the world number 36 already has a good chance to achieve one of the 32 seeds for the Australian Open from January, because this year she has no other points to defend.
The Wimbledon champion Iga Swiatek and the US Open -Finalist Amanda Anisimova belong to the players on the access list for the Korea Open, which starts on 15 September.
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