Emma Raducanu has pulled out of next week’s Chicago Fall Tennis Classic event, which was set to be her first appearance since her monumental US Open triumph.
The 18-year-old British No 1 completed her flawless Flushing Meadows victory by beating Leylah Fernandez in the US Open final on September 11 and was set to make her return to the court after frenzied media attention on September 27.
Raducanu has returned to the UK to her hometown of Bromley last week and was seen at a London Fashion Week event on Monday night.
But the teenager is now not expected to return to the court until the first week of October after pulling out of the Chicago tournament, which is running as a WTA event for the first time this year.
The prize money for winning the hard court event stands at $565,530 (£413,767), which is around a fifth of the $2.5m pot she got for becoming the first qualifier to ever win a Grand Slam in New York.
Other high-profile tennis stars to pull out of the Chicago Fall Tennis Classic event include American teenage star Coco Gauff, last year’s Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin and US Open semi-finalist Aryna Sabalenka.
The current top seed attending the event is Olympics bronze medallist and World No 4 Elina Svitolina, while former Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza is the second seed. Eleven out of the world’s top 20 are still set to compete in Chicago.
Raducanu’s US Open triumph lifted her to World No 22 after being ranked at 338 at the start of the Wimbledon Championships in June.
She reached the second week of the south west London Grand Slam before retiring to Ajla Tomljanovic after experiencing breathing difficulties and only broke in to the top 150 in the world after picking up WTA points in the run up to the US Open.
In winning the US Open, Raducanu became the first British woman to win a major title for 44 years since Virginia Wade lifted the Wimbledon trophy in 1977.
The British No 1 is now expected to make her return to the court at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells on October 4, which is one of the biggest non-Grand Slam events in world tennis.
The prize money for winning at Indian Wells is $1.2m (£884,572) with $640,000 (£467,977) going to the runner-up.
Since winning at Flushing Meadows, Raducanu has been raising her non-sporting profile by attending high-profile events such as the Met Gala in New York and London Fashion Week.
She attended the Met Gala last Monday in a monochrome Chanel ensemble, before appearing at an intimate dinner and party hosted by British Vogue and Tiffany & Co. to celebrate Fashion and Film at The Londoner Hotel a week later.
Work is also being done behind the scenes to try and make Raducanu a ‘$1billion brand’, with the chairman of InterTalent predicting her off-court earnings will swiftly surpass those of Japanese tennis star Naomi Osaka and US legend Serena Williams – the world’s two highest paid female athletes last year.
She is already managed by Max Eisenbud, vice-president of tennis at entertainment giant IMG and one of the most powerful agents in sport. And Emma’s multi-cultural background, being half-Chinese and fluent in Mandarin, is seen as a big part of her landing some huge deals.
Jonathan Shalit, who landed lucrative deals for Olympic boxer Nicola Adams and singer and TV host Myleene Klass, says Emma could become the first billion dollar female sports star.
Mr Shalit said: ‘In the space of a week, Emma has become a global phenomenon.
‘I already have her down to become the first $100million British female sports star. And if she continues on her current trajectory, she will be worth $1billion and be the biggest female sports star in the world.’