Reigning champion Emma Raducanu says she feels a sense of freedom after crashing out in the first round of the US Open on Tuesday in straight sets.
A year on from becoming the first qualifier in history to win the New York title, the Brit was unable to get her way past the experienced Alize Cornet who has now defeated a Grand Slam winner at every major this season. Raducandu fell 6-3, 6-3, to the Frenchwoman in exactly 100 minutes. The defeat means that she will suffer a heavy fall in the rankings when they are updated after the tournament.
“It’s obviously really disappointing, I’m sad to leave here. It’s probably my favourite tournament,” said Raducanu. “But also in a way, I’m happy because it’s a clean slate. I’m going to drop down the rankings and climb my way back up.”
“In a way, the target will be off my back slightly. I just have another chance to claw my way back up there.” She added.
Raducanu hasn’t played in a Tour final since winning her maiden major title. This season she has won 12 out of 27 matches played on the Tour with her best run being to the quarter-finals of tournaments in Stuttgart and Washington. She has lost all three of her meetings against top 20 players.
However, the 19-year-old is confident she is heading in the right direction after producing some encouraging results in recent weeks. Most notably at the Cincinnati Open where she defeated both Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka.
“I’ve been doing some really good work in the last six weeks especially. I’m just looking forward to kind of putting more of those weeks together consistently, then we’ll see what happens.” She said.
Currently without a permanent coach, Raducanu was mentored by Dimitry Tursunov at the US Open. A former player who has previously worked with Aryna Sabalenka and Anett Kontaveit. However, no decision has been made about if the collaboration will be extended for the coming weeks.
“With perspective, actually as a 19-year-old, I’ve not had a bad year. To be top hundred, if you told me that a year ago, I’d take it.” She said.
“I think it would be nice in a way to kind of just start over, start fresh.”
Switching her focus to trying to play more consistently on the Tour, Raducanu confirmed that she will be playing mainly WTA 250s during the rest of the season but didn’t elaborate on which tournaments.
As for Cornet, she will play Kateřina Siniaková in the second round. She is playing in her 63 consecutive Grand Slam tournament who is an Open Era record for women’s tennis.
