Emma Raducanu begins Wimbledon preparations, posts picture of grass court on Instagram 

Emma Raducanu has begun her preparations for Wimbledon. The British teenager posted a picture of a grass court on her Instagram story, relishing the start of the grasscourt season.

"First step onto this, hello pretty," she captioned her story.

Emma Raducanu posted a picture of a grass court on her Instagram story

Raducanu revealed that she will compete at the Nottingham Open in preparation for the British Major, which starts on June 27.

"I'm excited to return to Nottingham and it will be a great opportunity to play in front of British crowds for the first time this year," Raducanu was quoted as saying by the BBC.

Raducanu was beaten by Harriet Dart in the first round of the Nottingham Open last year (her WTA main-draw debut).

The US Open champion will be the highest-ranked player at the Nottingham Open and is expected to make a deep run on a surface she is more comfortable on. She will be joined by the likes of Sorana Cirstea, Camila Giorgi, Alize Cornet, Zhang Shuai and Ajla Tomljanovic.

Emma Raducanu was eliminated in the second round of the French Open

Raducanu suffered a second-round exit at the French Open

Emma Raducanu reached the second round of the 2022 French Open by beating teenager Linda Noskova in three hard-fought sets. She was up against Aliaksandra Sasnovich in the next round and took the opening set 6-3. However, the Belarusian won the next two sets to end her hopes in Paris.

Raducanu has had a rather disappointing season so far, with just eight wins from 18 matches. But the 19-year-old has had her moments, reaching the quarterfinals of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart. She also made the last 16 in Madrid following wins over Tereza Martincova and Marta Kostyuk, before losing to Anhelina Kalinina in three sets.

Raducanu reached the fourth round of Wimbledon last season, but will not be able to defend those points given that the grasscourt Major has been stripped of its ranking points this year.

Nonetheless, it will be interesting to see how the Brit fares in the grasscourt season.