Emma Raducanu arrives in Linz for final tournament of breakthrough season

Emma Raducanu arrived in Austria on Saturday for her final tournament of the season.

The US Open champion is the top seed and star attraction at the Upper Austria Ladies Linz, and she flew into the city with her mother Renee and agent Chris Helliar.

Raducanu is expected to play her first match on Tuesday, having received a bye in the first round, and she will face the winner of a clash between two qualifiers.

The 18-year-old claimed her first WTA Tour wins at the Transylvania Open last week and will hope to finish a remarkable year on a high, with the carrot of a spot in the top 20 dangling in front of her.

Two-time grand slam champion Simona Halep is the second seed, while third seed Danielle Collins showed good form for the United States at the Billie Jean King Cup finals in Prague this week.

Great Britain captain Anne Keothavong will hope that Raducanu is available to lead her team in the competition next year, but Saturday’s draw threw up a hugely difficult tie away to the Czech Republic in February’s qualifiers.

The Czechs have won the title six times in the last decade and can boast two of the world’s top four players in French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova and Wimbledon runner-up Karolina Pliskova.

They finished second in a very strong group in Prague, beating Germany but losing to Switzerland.

It is yet another away tie for Britain, who missed the chance to qualify for the inaugural finals week when they were beaten by Slovakia last February before securing victory over Mexico in April to guarantee another shot.

The Czechs could well select clay for the tie, which will take place on April 15-16. Raducanu is yet to play a senior match on the surface.