Sloane Stephens fired a parting shot in Emma Raducanu 's direction as she exited the Australian Open on Tuesday, warning the Briton she has "a lot to learn" about tennis etiquette.
Raducanu emerged on the winning side of a three-set war and advanced following her 6-0, 2-6, 6-1 triumph, marking a hugely successful debut in Melbourne against stiff opposition.
Stephens, 28, knows all too well the pressures that come with attempting to break through as a prodigy, having herself turned professional at the age of 16 back in 2009.
But her rise wasn't quite as meteoric as that of Raducanu, who won the U.S. Open in September, two months before her 19th birthday, while Stephens was 24 before she clinched her sole Grand Slam at Flushing Meadows.
Tensions were high in Victoria when Raducanu shouted "Come on!" in response to driving a forehand winner down the line in the match's opening point.
Stephens raised umbrage with Raducanu's actions after the youngster "gave like a massive scream" early on before going on to seal the first set by a bagel scoreline.
“Because she is so young it's definitely a long road, so there's going to be a lot of ups and downs. I think she, yeah, has just a lot to learn," Stephens warned after the match.
“I was talking to someone in the locker-room, and I'm like, ‘We'll be here when she comes down.’
At risk of sounding sour in her assessment of the teenager's performance, Stephens then appeared to backtrack slightly and added: “Not Emma, but just in general. It all is like a cycle, and I think learning how to deal with it early on is the best way to handle it. Just because there's always a lot of ups and downs in tennis.”
How far do you think Emma Raducanu will advance at her first Australian Open? Let us know in the comments section.
Raducanu sailed to last year's U.S. Open crown without losing so much as a set, already making her Australian Open experience a unique one in her budding Grand Slam career.
Many might have expected the world No. 18 would get the better of Stephens, who sits 49 places below her (No. 67) in the WTA rankings.
And although the ejected Stephens—who won the U.S. Open in 2017 and has featured in one other major final—acknowledged that slant, some of her response sounded less than accepting of the result.
“She played me, someone she's ranking-wise supposed to beat," she added. "And, I mean, yeah, she won.”
Raducanu's reward for her maiden win at the Australian Open is a second-round date opposite Montenegro's Danka Kovinic on Margaret Court Arena Thursday morning.
Kovinic has never advanced beyond the second round of a major tournament and will make her third appearance at this stage of the Australian Open having defeated South Korean Jang Su-jeong in her opener.
