Emma Raducanu, the US Open champion, will make her return to the tennis tour at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells next week. Raducanu had been mulling over where to make her first appearance since her stunning US Open victory and news came on Tuesday evening that the 18-year-old Briton has been given a wildcard into the prestigious event. The California tournament, which begins next Wednesday and is one of the biggest on the WTA Tour, is normally held in March but was postponed because of the pandemic. Although Raducanu’s ranking of 22 is comfortably high enough to secure entry into all the biggest events, the cut‑off is several weeks before the start of each tournament, meaning she needed a wildcard to avoid having to go through qualifying. Raducanu will be one of the star attractions in the Californian desert and tThere is bound to be huge focus on how she fares after sweeping all before her at Flushing Meadows. The teenager said last week she would not chase qualification for the end-of-season WTA Finals but she has also entered the Kremlin Cup in Moscow and the Transylvania Open in Romania later in October. Raducanu, who attended the premiere of the James Bond film No Time To Die on Tuesday, sits 14th in the race to reach the event in Guadalajara, needing to make up nearly 400 points to make it into the top eight.