Emma Raducanu showed glimpses of the player who shocked the world this summer by winning the 2021 US Open without dropping a set.
But she was unable to repeat her magical run at Flushing Meadows, bowing out of the Grand Slam with a first-round loss to Sofia Kenin on Tuesday night.
Raducanu was emotional after the match as he is yet to win at the U.S. Open since winning.
“I'm depressed, I'm sad,” the 21-year-old Raducanu said, fighting back tears. “Of course I want to do well in this tournament.”
Raducanu lost in the first round to Alize Cornet in 2022 and missed the tournament last year due to injury.
She appears to have put injury concerns aside this summer, reaching the fourth round at Wimbledon last month and the quarterfinals of the Citi Open in Washington, DC.
But then she surprisingly sat out the remainder of the hard-court season, choosing not to play in Montreal or Cincinnati.
“Maybe I started a little slow. Yes, I would have liked to play a little bit more before going to the U.S. Open,” Raducanu said Tuesday when asked about his schedule.
“Like any other player, I know it feels good to have more games. It just feels like everything is coming naturally. So, yeah, I think I can learn from it. And maybe my schedule will be a little bit different.”
The 25-year-old Kenin won the first set 6-1, but Raducanu rallied back to win the second set 6-3.
Raducanu double-faulted to hand Kenin, the 2020 Australian Open champion, the first break of the third set.
Kenin didn't experience much stress in her final three service games and won the match to advance to the second round to face sixth seed Jessica Pegula.
“It was really good to get back in the match,” Raducanu said. “I was totally behind in the first set, but it was good to get back to the tie after that.”
“In the third set, I was serving and down 2-2 and it was some pretty high-level tennis. I think I executed certain parts of my game better than in my previous matches, matching the speed and pace of her shots. I was playing against a very in-form opponent and, yes, she played pretty well.”
