‘I feel sad’ – Raducanu reduced to tears after first-round defeat

Three years on from a joyous and memorable triumph at Flushing Meadows, Emma Raducanu was reduced to tears after failing to end a long wait for another win on the same courts. The 21-year-old’s latest attempt in the first round of the 2024 US Open petered out with a three-set defeat by her fellow grand-slam champion Sofia Kenin.
Playing her first match in 25 days, Raducanu was predictably nowhere near as sharp as she should be coming into a grand-slam tournament. Although she battled hard to take the match to a deciding set, Kenin ultimately proved the steadier player in a 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 victory.
About an hour afterwards, Raducanu cut a downbeat figure during her post-match press conference. Pausing to compose herself as the emotion welled up, it was a stark contrast to the scenes after her famous victory as a qualifier at the same venue in 2021.
“I feel down,” Raducanu said. “I feel sad. Obviously this is a tournament I really want to do well in.” Raducanu has now suffered two consecutive first-round losses at the US Open since her ten-match run to the title — last year she missed the tournament because of her recovery from surgery on both wrists and her left ankle.
Overall, her grand-slam record since the start of 2022 is underwhelming, with only one run beyond the second round — the fourth round of Wimbledon this year — in eight appearances.
The questions that were already being raised about her build-up will now intensify. Raducanu opted to skip the Paris Olympics to focus on the hard-court swing — a reasonable decision given the surface changes required — but then played only one warm-up tournament in the United States, reaching the quarter-finals of the Washington Open.
It was understandable that she decided not to play the qualifying event for the Canadian Open in Toronto given the tight 48-hour turnaround after Washington, but it is baffling that she and her support staff decided to then head back to London for two weeks of training sessions on home soil before travelling to New York.
Opportunities to gain some valuable matchplay in qualifying for the Cincinnati Open and the main draws of tournaments in Cleveland and Monterrey were turned down, and there already appears to be some regret.
“I would have preferred to probably play a little bit more coming into the US Open,” Raducanu said. “I know when I have a lot of matches, just like every player, you feel good. You feel like everything’s automatic. I think I can learn from it and manage my schedule slightly differently.”
The status of Raducanu and Kenin as grand-slam winners would normally mean a match like this is billed as an early-round blockbuster, but both have frankly struggled in recent years to build on their success. Raducanu has not won more than three consecutive matches since the 2021 US Open and is ranked No72 in the world, while the 2020 Australian Open champion Kenin sits at No54 after winning only one of her past seven matches before her arrival here.
Kenin, aged 25, had at least played multiple tournaments during her hard-court swing and it showed in the early stages. After losing the opening game of the match, she won six consecutive games for the first set as Raducanu struggled on serve.
Raducanu raised her level of play in the second set and claimed her first break of serve for 3-2. Suddenly Kenin was all at sea and she ended the set with a total of 16 unforced errors to Raducanu’s four.
The key moment came early in the deciding set when Raducanu failed to convert a break point for a 2-0 lead. A poor service game at 2-2 handed back the initiative to Kenin, who was the aggressor for the remainder of the contest with a total of 45 winners to Raducanu’s 24.
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“I think I did really well to get myself back into the match,” Raducanu said. “In the first set I was outplayed completely and I think I did well to equal it. I think I came across a very in-form opponent today and she played really well.”
Raducanu will return to action at the Korea Open in Seoul from September 16, as the WTA Tour season comes to a conclusion with the Asian hard-court swing. No doubt progress has been made since she returned at the start of this year with a ranking of No301 after an eight-month injury absence, but more matches are needed to build the competitive sharpness required for the tour.
“I’m going to go back to the drawing board, train and analyse where I went wrong and try to improve for the rest of the season,” Raducanu said. “Obviously the grand slams are over for this year but it’s not actually that long until the Australian Open comes around again [in January].”
Meanwhile, Carlos Alcaraz claimed his 15th consecutive grand-slam win after overcoming a brief scare during his first-round match. The 21-year-old Spaniard, who won both Wimbledon and the French Open this summer, dropped the second set to the Australian qualifier Li Tu before getting back on top for a 6-1, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 victory.