British World No. 1 and defending Champion of the US Open Emma Raducanu’s return to New York was not memorable. French Alize Cornet defeated Raducanu 6-3, 6-3 in round one.
Emma Raducanu made waves in the tennis world by winning the US Open last year as a teenage qualifier. Since then, however, Emma Raducanu has struggled to build upon her Grand Slam victory.
Alize Cornet used her experience and toughness to get through 19-year-old Emma Raducanu easily. World number 40 ranked Cornet narrowly missed on the seeding for the US Open.
32-year-old Alize Cornet might be playing her last season on tour but has been impressed by her performances this year. She ended Roland Garros champion Iga Swiatek’s 37-match winning streak at Wimbledon.
Drawing a witty opponent like Alize Cornet in round one is always going to be tough for Emma Raducanu. She is struggling with injuries and a lack of consistent performance on tour.
Emma Raducanu kept fighting in the first set and at the beginning of the second. However, it was never enough against Alize Cornet who was determined to slay another Grand Slam champion.
Defending Champion Emma Raducanu’s struggled to assert control on the serve
Defending Champion struggled to maintain consistency on her groundstrokes. Even when she was showing determination to fight it out, her serve was broken 7 times throughout the match. On top of that, she sprayed 31 unforced errors which made the already tough match out of her hands.
With faulty returns from both sides, Raducanu fell behind 4-2 in the opening set. After catching up, she played another sloppy serve game for a score of 5-3, which gave Cornet the opening set.
Raducanu called for a physio after the first set and got treatment for her blisters.
“I’ve been getting some blisters throughout the weeks in the States. But I think that’s just down to humidity and stuff,” said Raducanu, who also suffered from them during her Australian Open defeat in January.
“You tape it up and move on it. It’s a blister. Not much you can do about it.”
Emma Raducanu’s comeback laid to waste
Emma came back on the court after the treatment but things quickly got tough as she was broken in the opening game. She showed some resilience and broke back. It was assisted by double faults from Cornet as Emma went 3-1 up in the set.
The crowd supported the British but it was soon over as Alize Cornet found her rhythm back and kept playing clean tennis. She won 5 straight games to close the set 6-3.
Emma Raducanu’s ranking after the US Open is going to take a hit. She will leave the top 50 and be placed around 80 in the world.
Reactions from Emma Raducanu
“This one hurts a bit because it’s my favorite tournament and there are a lot of emotions in the past year,” she said. “I’m proud for putting myself out there every match, every day, knowing I’m pushing myself to be the best I can.”
“The way that the conditions were, it was quite difficult because the ball was moving around for me to swing,” she said. “Alize’s defense was pretty good. Like, I thought she was just scrapping everything back. There were junk balls in the middle of the court.
“With the wind blowing around, it was really difficult. She just kept getting it back.”
Our Defending Champion Emma Raducanu will hope to start over again after the US Open. Plenty of improvements are needed but she has all the time in the world to come back and assert dominance.
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