Late on Tuesday night in Arthur Ashe stadium, Emma Raducanu wiped away tears as she digested another bitter loss in the first round of the US Open. Her tight, frantic three-set defeat against Sofia Kenin, at the tournament that yielded her career-defining victory three years ago, was even more painful given how tight the encounter had been.
While Kenin, the 2020 Australian Open champion, had been in poor form coming into the final grand slam tournament of the year, she rose to the occasion of facing a distinguished opponent and played a fantastic match.
Raducanu initially had no response, but she dragged herself back into contention with her resourcefulness and fight. In the important moments, though, Kenin struck the ball with greater freedom. She made Raducanu uncomfortable with her variety and she held on firm at the end.
Still, there can only be one conclusion for Raducanu in defeat: although she fought hard and contributed to a high quality encounter, she simply did not give herself the best chance of succeeding by skipping four weeks of the North American hard court swing leading into the tournament.
Since April, when Raducanu led Great Britain to Billie Jean King Cup success against France, she has been playing quality tennis. She had reached the quarter-finals or better of four tournaments and the fourth round of Wimbledon, beating multiple top-10 players. But then, curiously, she stopped playing.
After her encouraging quarter-final defeat in Washington on 2 August, Raducanu opted not to play again until the US Open. As with the Italian and French Open tournaments she missed earlier in the year, her ranking did not allow her to enter the main draw of the events she missed and she was not offered wildcards.
Instead of taking the opportunity to drop down and gain more matchplay, Raducanu returned to the sterile, familiar surroundings of the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton.
Before the tournament, Raducanu had reasoned, not for the first time, that she has “always done things a little bit differently” and her scheduling was one of the ways that she has differed from other players. Raducanu’s early success has clearly emboldened her to approach her career in her own way but some of the decisions that she and her team have made seem to carry a touch of hubris.
Tennis players must play tennis matches. Regular competition gives players a better chance of sharpening their decision-making, holding their nerve under pressure and figuring out how to adapt their games to different playing styles. Not even Serena Williams, notorious for her sparse scheduling, thought she could stroll to a grand slam tournament and dominate without any matches under her belt unless injury left her with no choice.
Kenin is an excellent player in her own right, whose résumé outstrips Raducanu’s. The American followed up her Australian run with a French Open final before being named the WTA player of the year in 2020 and the fall since has been even steeper. Her level on Tuesday was excellent enough to win regardless of her opponent’s preparation. But between Raducanu and her team, their job is to ensure that she steps up to the baseline fully prepared for all challenges. Here, she clearly was not.
Perhaps this defeat will turn out to be the reality check that the Raducanu team need. This time, there are no injuries or unfortunate circumstances to point to as a possible contributing factor.
In the aftermath of defeat, Raducanu acknowledged that she would have benefited from making better decisions earlier in the season and she would aim to compete more in the future. She also noted that the decision to head home after Washington had been a collective decision – those who are advising her could stand to do a better job of keeping her, still an inexperienced 21-year-old player, on the right track.
This is an incredibly tough, competitive sport, and with the current depth of the WTA tour there are many players capable of performing at a high level on any given day. Between the constant travelling, competition and the growing target on any successful player’s back, sustained success requires players to put themselves in uncomfortable, vulnerable positions each week and to find a way out the other side. It remains to be seen if and when Raducanu will be ready to truly commit.
