Emma Raducanu will be among the seeded players for the second Grand Slam of the year if she can avoid health and injury setbacks, according to tennis legend Martina Navratilova.

Raducanu is set to return to the top 50 of the WTA Rankings after an impressive run to the quarter-finals of the Miami Open, with her four wins kick-starting a season that was struggling to click into top gear.

Her impressive performance in a three-set defeat against world No 4 Jessica Pegula added to the optimism around Raducanu and now 18-time Grand Slam singles champion Navratilova has backed the 2021 US Open champion to get back into the mix at the top of the women’s game.

“If she stays healthy and plays this well, then she’ll be seeded at Roland Garros,” Navratilova told Sky Sports Tennis. “I think she’ll move up the ranking well enough into the top 30. The biggest question mark is her health.

“Hopefully she can sort out her coaching situation because she’s been in a state of flux, but I think she needs to commit to somebody and stay with them for a little bit, see how that works.

“If she played like she did against Pegula, then the sky’s the limit.”

Raducanu had a worrying health issue at the end of the second set against Pegula, as she called for medical assistance after suggesting she felt dizzy.

Navratilova suggested the issue may not have been physical and more a reaction to the pressure she was feeling in the heat of battle against last year’s US Open finalist.

“It was amazing. The way she looked at the end of that second set, you think this match is over and somehow she won the set, she won the tie-break, and still competed in the third but she was not feeling well,” added Navratilova.

“I think the stress contributed to that because the weather was fine, it was cool, they finished after 11pm so the weather was [not a factor]. The humidity takes it out of you a lot, but still – this was something more for Emma and it’s just amazing that she finished the match.”

Former British No 1 Tim Henman has been a big supporter of Raducanu since her US Open win three and a half years ago and he was also impressive with the performance levels served up by the 22-year-old.

“I thought the quality of the match, the ball-striking from both women was absolutely phenomenal,” said Henman. “Pegula is number four in the world, she’s been in the US Open final, hard-court is her best tennis and Raducanu went head-to-head, toe-to-toe with her.

“When you see that level from Raducanu, not only of the tennis, but also of the movement, the resilience, the fighting spirit, if she keeps doing that then she’s getting back in the top 20, top 30 I think and that’s what we want to see.”

Raducanu’s next tournament is set to be the Open de Rouen, a WTA 250 event in France that gets underway on April 14.

That tournament is taking place on the same week as the WTA 500 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix tournament in Stuttgart, where Raducanu has played in recent years due to her sponsorship with the luxury car company.