Emma Raducanu has been drawn against Maria Sakkari in the Dubai Tennis Championships and may fancy her chances of ending a frustrating four-match losing streak. The British No. 2 has won both of her previous meetings with the Greek player.

Raducanu has been determined to get matches under her belt after a slow start to January. The Australian Open was the 22-year-old's first outing of the year.

She has since played tournaments in Singapore, Abu Dhabi and Qatar. However, despite some positive moments, the 2021 US Open champion was knocked out in the first rounds of each.

A wildcard has been granted to Raducanu for the Dubai Tennis Championships, which begin tomorrow (Sunday). The draw has pitted her against world No. 29 Sakkari in a difficult clash.

But Raducanu will be hopeful of winning for the first time in five matches because she has beaten the 29-year-old in both of their previous meetings. Both occasions came in Grand Slams, with Raducanu winning in the more pressured environment with the eyes of the world watching on.

Their first clash came in the semi-final of the 2021 US Open, in which Raducanu went on to remarkably triumph at the age of 18. A straight-sets 6-1 6-4 victory set up a final against Leylah Fernandez in New York. Raducanu failed to drop a set throughout the entire tournament despite starting as a qualifier.

She then met Sakkari at last year's Wimbledon, once again winning in straight sets. That was a 6-2 6-4 success as the world No. 60 recorded her best Wimbledon finish, reaching the fourth round.

Raducanu is still searching for the form which made her once of the most exciting talents when she burst onto the scene in 2021. That year, she reached the third round at Wimbledon before going on to triumph at Flushing Meadows just months later.

Injuries and inconsistency have prevented Raducanu from reaching those heights in the four years since. In 2023, she underwent surgery on both wrists and her ankle in a bid to overcome recurring problems. Some fitness issues have arisen in the year-and-a-half since then.

The former world No. 10 has conducted her tour of Singapore, Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Dubai without a coach, instead only working with fitness trainer Yutaka Nakamura. Nick Cavaday left her team after the Australian Open to concentrate on a personal health problem. Raducanu's next coach will be the seventh of her career and she has insisted that she will take her time before making that appointment.