Emma Raducanu continued a frustrating run at the Ningbo Open, where she lost her opener to Zhu Lin.
Raducanu fell 6-3, 4-6, 1-6 to the Chinese wildcard at the WTA 500 event, having required medical attention during the match.
She experienced a similar scenario at the Wuhan Open shortly before, where Raducanu retired with illness against Ann Li.
Li wished Raducanu well after her retirement, which arrived when the former British number one was trailing 6-1, 4-1.
Currently ranked 29th on the WTA Tour, the Briton has 28 wins and 21 losses to her name this season, with zero titles won.
Emma Raducanu makes decision on next two tournaments and her coach
She will end the season on such figures, having decided to withdraw from her final two tournaments of the season.
As reported by BBC Sport, Raducanu will skip the upcoming events in Tokyo and Hong Kong due to the illness she has been suffering with for the past 10 days.
A WTA 500 event, the Pan Pacific Open Tennis takes place in Tokyo next week, followed by the WTA 250 Hong Kong Tennis Open.
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She has instead decided to fly home to recover, before starting her preparations for the new season, which will include coach Francisco Roig.
Raducanu hired Roig in August, with the Spaniard having previously worked with 22-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal.
Emma Raducanu makes smart decision to end her 2025 season early
Raducanu is wise to end her 2025 campaign prematurely, having nothing of note left to play for at this stage of the season.
She occupies 26th place in the Race to the WTA Finals, with no chance of making the cut, while she can now focus on a strong start to the new season.
Interestingly, the Briton is by no means the only player across either the WTA Tour or ATP Tour to make such a decision.
Elina Svitolina has finished her season early, along with her WTA Tour rivals Paula Badosa and Daria Kasatkina.
Remarkably, Raducanu’s only WTA title to date arrived at the US Open in 2021, with the 18-year-old having beaten 19-year-old Leylah Fernandez in the final.
Another title should undoubtedly be among her priorities in 2026, but perhaps staying fit and healthy may be top of the pile given her long list of issues in her relatively brief career so far.
The 22-year-old has managed to win back her British number one spot, but she remains some way off her WTA career-high rank of 10.
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